The internet, connectivity, signal, Wi-Fi, web, online, etc., all of these words are things that have become very familiar to us in our “modern world”; and all of them are things that I have been without for several days now. It’s funny, but you really forget how much these “social networks”, more like “anti-social networks,” trap you in. My level of anxiety, from my state of “disconnectedness,” is nearing the summit of Mt. Despair, but, just before I get there, I’ve decided to take a step back and look at the plain irrationality of the whole thing.
I think the most apparent thing that I should be recognizing is the fact that I LIVE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ECUADORIAN AMAZON! I realize that it is quite a miracle of science that Internet, with a capital “I,” and the F-word (Facebook that is) have even found their way into the selva. Is Mark Zuckerberg aware that even underprivileged kids from the Ecuadorian orient, many of whom live in the middle of nowhere, and I don’t mean rural Indiana nowhere, have Facebook accounts? Would Mr. Zuckerberg be willing to donate some of his gazillions of dollars to my students if he did know this? Who can help me with this matter? Anyhow, my point, after that brief rambling session, is that kids here in the orient who have no computers in their homes, generally have regular access to internet while they’re here at school, thanks to Yachana. Unfortunately, the rule of the selva is that things tend to break with time out here.
Our internet system is a bit of an intricate beast of technology, which I will not even presume to be able to explain with my little knowledge. Let’s face it, with things moving as fast as they are, a 2nd grader can do things with a cell phone that are completely lost on me. At any rate, some way or another, an internet signal is aimed at a big satellite here at Yachana, which, in turn, is distributed by a series of other satellites and antennas. Believe it or not, the antenna at the high school spreads the signal it receives, from the lodge, which is about a mile away, all around the school grounds and gives us Wi-Fi (very slow Wi-Fi¸ but Wi-Fi nonetheless). A signal is also somehow sent down river (about 2-3 miles) to the Global Vision International Yachana reserve and distributed in a similar manner. As you might imagine, if something goes wrong with this system, it is a bit complicated to get it fixed. First and foremost, I have never passed a Best Buy while floating down the Napo River, and I don’t think that the Geek Squad makes house calls here. Can someone also look into that for me? As a result of a “down” in the system, we have now been without internet, within the entire Yachana community, almost since the beginning of the month.
The first thing that this experience has taught (or rather revealed to me) is that, over the years, I have slowly and without knowing become very sick with a new disease known as, “Facebookus Addictulitis.” What is the cure for this disease? Well, scientist (mostly those born in the fifties and sixties) all over the world are hastily and desperately searching for a cure, but they have been, thus far, unsuccessful. I however, Christopher Mackenzie Baumunk, MA grad of Spanish Literature, believe I have come up with a remedy (or at least a temporary treatment). All you have to do is volunteer to teach at Yachana Foundation, in the interior of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and wait for something to go wrong with the internet. Alternatively, for a speedier cure, you could also bypass the wait and volunteer at a place in the selva that simply has no internet. Might I suggest a very unique experience with an indigenous Amazon tribe, perhaps the amazing Shuar people, or the Huarani?
Well, I have decided to respond to the plea of the band Third Eye Blind, “Wish you would step back from that ledge my friend…,” and not end it all quite just yet*. Ultimately, I think my internet-less experience is going to be a quite good one for me, even if I can’t see that at this point. I do think that my friends and family, you, the reader that follows this blog, will begin to feel just as disconnected from me as I do from them. That is certainly one of the unfortunate effects of this circumstance, but all I can do is apologize for my long absence from blogging and emailing. Even as I write this (in Word), I am uncertain when I will be “reconnected”. There is a very good possibility that I might not actually be posting this until the end of the month, when I’m in Q uito on break. I have also previously written two other blog entries, which I have been unable to publish, but plan on doing so whenever the “access” returns.
While I am writing this, I am laughing to myself slightly because of the vocabulary I have been employing. My mind reverts to It’s a Wonderful Life, also to the 60s, 70s, 80s and, even, some of the 90s, when words like blogs, blogging, emailing, Wi-Fi, etc. would have been completely unknown gibberish. I don’t have to go into this subject to much, because I know it’s one that is over-exposed as it is, but it’s interesting, isn’t it? Just think, we have even had to reinvent words, take words that used to have another meaning and give them a new one. A net is still used for fishing or playing sports, but it is also the Net and a mouse was a problem that required the use of traps with cheese, poison pellets or the purchase of a cat, but is now also what I’m holding in my hand, manipulating the cursor. From my point of view, that of a child born in the 80s who grew up in the nineties, this transformation and movement of technology is incredible. I remember the first modems that made that horrible sound, which I affectionately called “The Dying Cat,” the term “56k”, which meant it took one hour to download a song on Napster, the little AOL Running Man, “You’ve got mail!”, and the old Floppy Disks that were literally floppy! Now we have about a million words to identify our storage devices that are smaller than my pink finger, pen drive, thumb drive, memory, flash, and the list goes on.
Now that I find myself out here in the selva, without my precious connection, I realize how much a big part of our lives technology has come to be. I’ve almost always known technology like this because I grew up as it was growing up. It might be the craziness talking, but I think I am starting to like being without it! As many of you know, I have never liked texting and I am more than ecstatic to be free of that completely dehumanizing and, often times rude, practice. When I say it’s dehumanizing, I refer to the fact that it ties you to the machine and makes your response almost as instantaneous as the obnoxious beeping, buzzing or musical prompt it emits. I call texting rude, because it is often done right in front of you, while you are conversing with someone, having dinner with them or sharing a beer; the live, face-to-face, communication is abruptly cut off and priority is given to the machine and its’ prompt. I am curious as to how my family and friends are doing and I wouldn’t mind having news of the “outside world,” but I am glad to be free of the impulse to see if I have notifications or new emails.
The lack of internet combined with terrible weather is also leading to some curious behavior issues. Thus far, this has been an interesting month; we are in the rainy season, which means, if it doesn’t rain a lot, it rains every day. I have been told that the rainy season lasts until June, so we can expect this weather almost every day for the next three months. I’m from Indiana, I’m no stranger to adverse weather conditions, but I must admit that I have felt a bit like a walled in cat during the past week. No internet, no electricity during the day (our inverter is down) and a lot of rain, make you look for new things to occupy your time in the jungle. I guess the Northern Russians must feel this way in the middle of winter, unfortunately we can’t resort to Vodka here. My students expressed their feelings of entrapment by trying to sneak off, without permission, to the community fair downriver, two days ago.
I feel strange because I am now the “responsible adult,” the “authority,” who is required to “lay down the law” and provide a punishment. I don’t much like being the authority figure, it makes me feel old and see myself as the mean parent (I don’t want kids, EVER), but, with the help of the other volunteers, all three of us looked like the bad guys and we decided on the punishment together. It’s funny, as I spoke with the kids I felt like I was repeating my mother’s words, “Son, you will never lose my respect or my love, but you have definitely lost my trust.” The kids, a group of five, as a consequence of their actions, no longer have permission to go to the community or anywhere else without our accompaniment and have also lost their next external internship, which means they will be interning at the lodge next month.
Well, I will wrap up this document (I call it a document because I have no clue when it will become a blog) here. Just as I finished that last sentence, the rain starting coming down even harder. The tin roof of the high school amplifies the impact of the drops and that depressing feeling starts to creep on in. I think I remember seeing a chess set around here somewhere. Does anyone remember Rocky IV, when Rocky’s trainer is playing chess with the Russian owner of the cabin that they’re training in in the middle of the Siberian dessert? That’s how I’m beginning to feel, minus the cold. I hope the kids know how to play chess.
*My readers who are nineties kids will get my reference to the song “Jumper,” but, if you didn’t get it, take a look at Third Eye Blind’s, “Jumper,” on YouTube.
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