Its a Small World....la la la....

From October 3, 2008

I sometimes wonder if the composer of “It’s a Small World” had any idea what that would look like in the year 2008. The world really is getting smaller. Or at least distances don’t feel quite as far. I stopped at the internet café a few weeks ago and found an email from an old friend from Koro. Amagana was my first friend in my village during my Peace Corps days, and a huge help in the work that I did during those two years. It has been some time since he and I have corresponded. When I lived in Koro, it was a one-phone town (when that one phone was working.) Since I left Koro, Amagana has gotten an email address and a cell phone, which make communication a whole lot easier.

When I opened up Amagana’s email I found that he was in Ghana! Again, the world is getting smaller. I sent him my phone number, and with in a few hours we were catching up on families and children and old friends. It was wonderful. Amagana was a 150 miles away in Accra. It should have been fairly easy for us to find a way to meet, I mean the relative distance wasn’t very far considering I live in the USA and he lives near Timbuktu! But my “It’s a Small World” moment vanished when I started thinking about 5 hours in public transportation with two small children. No, the world is still a big place. Technology only fools us into thinking otherwise.

But you know what? I’ll play along with that trick! It feels awfully nice to pick up the phone and pretend for a little while that I am just down the street from the people I love.