Day 307, Technological failure is frustrating to me. In the religion of science technological failure is akin to the test of faith. It has happened to me in the past but in Mseleni this spiritual trial feels harsher than ever before.
My cell phone has been my conduit to the outside world, not only does it allow me to speak to friends and family but it is also my modem and thus allows me to stay in touch with news from abroad, arrange my affairs back home and by way of my writings it even helps broadcast my thoughts. So when a piece of the phone broke and then it refused to let me speak through it I felt abandoned by the heavens.
My laptop and external hard drive are the other components to keeping me on the grid. Also, all my entertainment; music, TV, movies, they are all contained in this paraphernalia. Being representative of Mseleni these became infected by contamination from their local counterparts. They still function but are left crippled and weak by the virus. It does make me wonder how cruel the fates can be to give an innocent computer a virus, but science works in often mysterious ways for those who do not understand its’ intricacies.
But technology doesn’t stand still and even in rural Kwazulu Natal those of us that believe in it are trying bring others round to our way of thinking. My friend and I have even been trialling a digital pen to record our clinical notes and decipher our questionable scrawls. It is our hope that maybe through the use of modern ideas and equipment we may be able to improve upon the practices of old to the benefit of the masses.
In the hospital technology is not alien. We have portable ultrasound machines, bedside haemoglobin meters, and even a pocket saturation monitor, albeit these examples are but a small portion of all the things that we are lacking. Perhaps the most useful pieces of tech are other people’s phones (as we’ve already established mine has limited functionality now). Particularly those with Apples or Berries are able to consult my favourite colleague, Dr. Google, on any number of medical conundrums.
It may sometimes test us when the system crashes, a bug appears or we drop that piece of kit into water but ultimately the answer is usually hidden in the readme file or the user manual. It is true that science cannot explain everything though it tries very hard, but through technology shows us a light even in the darkest of places.
U-ser Man-u-al? What's one of those?
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