Breaking an Addiction

Before I came to Uganda, I thought a summer with limited internet connectivity would be a nice change from my daily routine in the U.S. It’ll teach me that constant connectedness isn’t necessary, I thought. And while that’s true--I don’t need to check my email 24/7--it has also made me long for and appreciate that connectedness much more than I did before my trip.

We connect to the internet here through a small USB modem, and ten people are sharing one single modem, so I get the internet once every few days, on average. It’s not too bad, but it’s just enough that we’re just connected, yet not to the extent that we’re accustomed to at Duke, where there is high-speed internet just about everywhere on campus, whenever we want.

Also, I miss my phone. While we have phones here, calls are fairly expensive, and it’s a pay-as-you-go system, which I’m not used to in the U.S. If you run out of airtime in the middle of a call, tough luck--your call gets cut off. We’re constantly buying more minutes to “recharge” our phones.

Ultimately, I’m looking forward to landing in DC, where I can turn my Blackberry back on and re-enter the world of connectedness. Imagine that--being able to call my parents whenever I want (instead of having to wait for the internet every few days for Skype); the ability to look up something on the internet, whenever I want; receiving important emails almost instantaneously, instead of a few days to a week after they’re sent.

... So much for cracking the habit.