Social networking

Organisational safety requirements are that I have an HF radio in the village which I listen to every morning, checking in twice a week on schedule.

I dutifully brought all this equipment with me, including a solar power system to keep it all running. On arrival in the village, we created a scene as we set up the radio antenna and solar panels, wiring everything to my bedroom. I had plenty of helpers and observers for the set up, and plenty of people enjoying the light at night and the availability of phone charging ever since.

In the mornings, I sit down to eat my breakfast as I listen to the morning sched. I didn’t bring a list of radio calls signs with me, but am quickly learning to recognise voices and know who else is out in the village. With the end of the school year approaching*, there are not many teams out, as families chose to be in town for end of year events.

Sitting by the radio and checking in on Mondays and Thursdays makes me feel like an old-school missionary. The radio was their connection with the outside world, their lifeline for news, flight schedules and medical advice. Even today, I have a sense of belonging as I hear the voices of friends in their far away villages, knowing that we are colleagues working together on one task.

Often while I’m listening to the radio, I’m also checking email and facebook on my phone. Usually there is enough coverage for me to download text, but rarely enough for pictures. The radio operator and two of the three levels of supervisors above me are my facebook friends, who ‘like’ my posts and so know where I am, making the radio seem obsolete much of the time. The fact phone towers go out of service, sometimes for weeks at a time, is the reason I’m still required to have a radio, but the contrast remains.

There is the contrast of communication styles, but really there is nothing new about any of it. Humans are social beings and we like to keep in touch with each other. We want to know what is going on in the world, in the lives of our friends and family. We want to know that we are not alone in our joys or in our sufferings. Online social networks are simply a new take on reading the ‘births, deaths and marriages’ or social pages in the newspaper. They are wider reaching versions of the lady in the front garden leaning on the fence and the man in the pub leaning on the bar. That wider reach can be a challenge for me, as I sit in my village house and am delighted at the birth of a friend’s child and saddened by the final days of another friend's wife. These people are strangers to each other and strangers to the people around me. I am the only common link. It is hard to celebrate or to grieve in isolation.

With my radio I communicate with a small group within my organisation. With my phone I keep in touch with friends and contacts. With this blog I open my thoughts to whoever chooses to read them.

Blessings and Bubbles standing by.

*Although in the southern hemisphere, the international school in Ukarumpa operates to a northern hemisphere schedule to cater to the majority of the student population. The PNG school year finishes in December.

PS As I’m writing this blog post with limited internet, there are no photos. I intend to add them at a later date once I have a better connection and have caught up on rest.