Water and Wires

An unexpected benefit of this trip has been a leap forward in technology for us and for all of those around us. I have never considered myself a "techy", and in fact, we usually rely on Laura's brother, Matt, or one of our resident teenage exchange students to do anything involving wires or routers. But here we have no choice. As a result, we are now wired with Skype, which allows us to make international video calls and phone calls for a flat rate. I can assemble a cell phone, including installing a sim card. I can look at a hot water heater, fashion a makeshift screwdriver and turn it up from tepid to semi-warm. I can more or less manage the remotes that control the satellite TV. All this is new to me but I'm rather proud of having managed it. Laura has had her own challenges: the combination washer/dryer is a mystery. It washes and heats but it doesn't really dry. Thus, we have a clothes rack and clothes strung out on towel bars in each bath room. The hot water heater seems to heat on its own schedule, which unfortunately doesn't coincide with Laura's preferred schedule for showering. The schedule on which the radiators run is equally mysterious. Slowly, we are getting it figured out, but I can't help but ponder the fact that we are fortunate to be educated people in a country where they speak our native language with resources to seek help as needed. What if we were uneducated, spoke no English and were afraid of calling attention to ourselves as many people in poverty and immigrants sometimes are at home? This experience is definitely giving us new perspectives in sometimes challenging ways.