Life Without Internet

I have already talked about the dominant stereotypes that people at home have of the Peace Corps and I'll admit they are many of the same I had and probably still have...of those in Africa. Here, in Latin America, globalization is rampant, NAFTA is obviously doing its thing, and though about 50% of the rural population still has no idea how to use a computer much less the internet there are those who know all about it. Especially if they go on to high school, kids here are required to type up reports more and more. Out of all the volunteers in El Salvador, I would guess that about 10% have it in their home and about 50% more have daily access to it. Those of us with internet sometimes lament that we do have it. It is definitely beneficial in helping with projects, coping with loneliness, and fending off boredom BUT it can have its drawbacks. It can allow you to sequester yourself from the community, stunt creative solutions to boredom, and allow you to stay connected with a world you decided to check out of when you joined this gig. I have thought this but rarely fully acknowledged it until now.

This past weekend, I visited my boyfriend who was without internet temporarily and so needed company. Also, he was also nearer to where a bunch of us volunteers would be watching the World Cup England vs. USA game so I headed over there. We soon fell into our normal routine of watching movies and cooking dinner from scratch. But, at some point we fell bored with all that. Without internet he decided it was time to teach me how to play chess. I was more than happy to learn since it too was on my long list of "things I must do before I die." And so it went, the game which non-players think of as akin to knowing a foreign language kept us in a competitive spirit for four days and we passed the days easily. We also decided to try our hands a pizza and discovered that we are more than capable pizza chefs. At one point, I discovered that the internet came back on. I was excited and the chess game fell by the wayside. After about 15 minutes of the inattention that soon engulfs two people online, I quickly lamented the discovery and started complaining of the reversal of fortune as rather unfortunate instead of fortunate. I lost the battle though and fell asleep to him on the computer. In the morning it seems that the gods of the internet heard my disappointment and took it away again for the rest of the weekend leaving us to chess and cooking. It was a great weekend. Probably one of the most memorable of my service especially when you consider at one point the lights also went out for 30 minutes and we were forced to eat our delicious BBQ chicken pizza in the dark.

Lesson learned: Take time out of life and get rid of the outside world. I think when I get back to the States I am going to make a concerted effort to do that more often.