BlackBerrys Before Water

Many of my friends and family have realized something very strange about my situation in Muhuru.  While I shower out of a bucket with water provided by good ol’ Lake Victoria (heated using a wood fire and transported by donkey, of course), I can easily gchat with a friend in New York while walking three miles home on a rocky, dirt road.  Yes, I have a BlackBerry in Kenya.

Several months ago in Muhuru Bay, Safaricom, a huge cell service company, built a tower atop one of the hills over looking the lake.  “How is a cell tower possible if you don’t have electricity?” you ask.  Generators.  Big, loud generators powered by diesel fuel.  “And how do people charge their phones if they don’t have anywhere to plug them in?” you ask.  Easy – our hut is one place. There are a few other families with solar powered generators, and a few scattered petrol powered generators that charge Sh 20 per charge.

So, believe it or not, we have BlackBerry devices in this tiny fishing village before we have running water.  Isn’t it strange how development works?

I have a theory. Cell phones have begun to revolutionize Muhuru. People need to charge their phones… they purchase solar. People want computers so that they can browse the internet. They have begun to realize that they are CONNECTED to the world outside of Muhuru, and they want to be more connected. It is almost as if, in this tiny town without a paved road, without gridded electricity, we are skipping decades, even centuries of development, moving straight to the part that matters the most – our connection to the people around us – calling them, emailing them our precious thoughts, and gchatting with them when we wish to communicate.

I could go into a full analysis of how the past 150 years of development in the west has materialized us, has alienated us from each other, and has even hardened our abilities to love and unite with other human beings. (AKA “the Ipod Phenomenon. Leave me alone, I’m listening to my Ipod.”) But what I am seeing here in Africa is that our consciousness as human beings may, in fact, be moving to a new level, one of strength, one of understanding, one of unity. We are longing to connect.