Unplugged, But Not By Choice - April 17

I am unplugged again, but it is different this time. I didn’t plan this, for starters! I can usually count on getting internet at certain spots along my route, but this time it has not happened. The hotel was full; we did not stop at CCIT in Champai; and there is not even cell phone out here in Zohkathar! I am still writing when I have a minute (usually early in the morning when I can’t sleep), but I feel more cut off this trip than ever before. I am safe, healthy, happy, but cut off. I did a week unplugged before without trouble, so what is the difference now?

Expectation, is all. This morning I was up with the first light of dawn. I am staying in a very nice guest house overlooking the Burma boarder. Again, it was very quiet. Again, it was the voices in my head that pulled me from my sleep. But today I looked out at those on the receiving end of the racial rant. As I worried about being disconnected from my family and friends, I looked down at a Burmese family on the India side of the river--truly unplugged, disconnected. Unplugged not just from technology but from their homeland, their family, and their culture. Children who will not see their parents birthplace, children who will be judged by their name first and their actions second, children who will have to create a new culture with elements from their past and present.

I have yet to make the trip from Aizawl to Zowkathar without our driver stopping somewhere to drop off a letter or a package along the way. It just seems to be a community service the driver provides. Although I am unplugged, this blog is getting to you because of a network of friends: a driver willing to drop off a memory stick with Grace at CCIT; Grace willing to download and email this it my editor, Crystal; and Crystal willing to work her magic and mount this for the rest of my family and friends to see. As long as I have friends, I will never be completely unplugged.