I have yet to see a computer in a Zulu home in Isandlwana. There are two stores in the village called “Tuck Shops”. They sell snacks, sodas and a few household necessities on maybe 5 to 10 shelves. They do not have computers either, though the main one does sell live chickens for 35 rand ($5) each!

I heard that the public library in town had free Internet. I asked my friend Stae to accompany me into town to show me where it was. After a two-hour bus ride, two taxi fares and one-hour walk, we arrived. The librarian said there was no Internet that day and asked us to come back “maybe Monday.” Stae, a very intelligent 20-year-old high school graduate, asked if she could come back with me again next time to “watch me type.”

A few weeks before, one of the girls that lived on my old compound was dropped off
in front of my house. She arrived with a large square box and used a wheelbarrow
to roll it up to my house. Patting the plastic wrapping, she said, “My computer” with pride. The kids and I gathered around for the dramatic unwrapping. Out came a large Neanderthal monitor, a mouse, keyboard, then an old ac/dc power converter. “Memory here?”" she asked after pulling out this last item, and then “Can you help me make it work?”. Everyone stared at me expectantly. I knew she’d been ripped off by someone and been given “a computer” without a hard drive.

Do I miss not having the Internet? It’s like when I was back home and people would ask me about not having a TV. I don’t really think about it anymore. My day-to-day routine is now established without it.

We are so adaptable as human beings. Put us in almost any sort of conditions and we will survive. We really can do anything we set our hearts out to do. What’s that one thing in the back of your mind tugging on you to do? What is it that you are telling yourself is too difficult? Try it! I am not promising success, but satisfaction.

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
-Eleanor Rooselvelt