21st Century Fun in a 19th Century World

Technology is fun. Especially for people who don’t see it very much. Yes, it is true that more people in the world have cell phones than toilets. I personally know many people in this category. Though I would rather have a toilet than a telephone, I realize that for many people, that isn’t the obvious choice. Also, playing Angry Birds is hugely entertaining for many people, and in honor of my Angry-Birds-obsessed nephew whose birthday just passed, here are some photos of kids having the best day ever on the khawaja’s ipad.  Note: I more often let kids play on my phone, but then I can’t get photos of them with my phone because they are using my phone.

It’s not just kids that love electronic devices. Repent has gotten really good on the iPad and the computer. He’s started learning Excel, and he’s really loving it. Mostly, he uses their old desktop, but sometimes I let him do stuff on my laptop. Since my version of Excel is later than the one on their computer, and there is no way to update their version with no internet, I don’t do this often, because I don’t want to confuse him. But someday maybe he will have his own laptop.

 One rainy day, Repent and Esther and I were trapped in the house. I had a full battery on my computer and the next day was planned to be a charging day, so I thought it would be fun to watch a movie with them for a bit while we ate lunch. I selected one that I thought would cross language and culture barriers—Animals are Beautiful People, a documentary about wildlife in the Namib Desert, made in 1978, according to the torrent file. I’ve loved this movie since old family friends first showed it to me as a child. With a background of beautiful classical music, including many of my favorites like Beethoven’s Pastorale, Grieg’s Morning Suite from Peer Gynt, The Moldau from Smetana, and more,  while an uppity-sounding Englishman tells the story with moments of dry humor and pathos (the baby pelicans die and it’s sad, OK?). I love that Repent and Esther aren’t self-conscious at all about laughing uproariously at silliness. I know that I am too jaded and cynical and snobby about comedy, so I will give a casual smile at the monkeys somersaulting down the hill, but Repent and Esther laugh til they cry.  I think their favorite part was when the man dressed up as an ostrich to try to get close enough to steal its egg, but the ostrich chased him away anyway. But don’t think that they were feeling superior to the people of the Namib Desert. When the man is hunting and the bird keeps cawing just as he is about to shoot his arrow, effectively scaring away the intended prey, Repent couldn’t take it. “Ter de bataal,” he said, scowling at the computer and shaking his head. “That bird is bad.” He was picturing himself on the hunt with his bow and arrows and if a bird kept messing with him in that way, he’d do the same as the Namibian hunter—roast that bird up for dinner. Repent was very satisfied with that turn of events.

Here’s a photo of Esther and Repent laughing hysterically at the animals after they ate the fermented fruit and being stumbling around drunkenly.

OK-this isn't the photo where they are laughing hysterically,
but that photo was too blurry.

Finally, here is a photo of Repent playing the Strawberry Shortcake game that I downloaded for my niece because South Sudan doesn’t stigmatize grown men who like playing kids’ games on iPads. He got a huge kick out of changing her clothes—just like Evie did.