Microwaves and iPhones

I never cease to be surprised by life in Niger. So often things just don't line up the way I think they should in my North American way of thinking and often the inconsistencies make me laugh. For example, I have a friend who lives in a thatch hut, but she has a TV, unlike me who lives in a very nice home with electricity and plumbing, yet I have no TV--by choice, I realize. But it seems funny that the only time I watch TV is when I'm in her hut with her.

My latest inconsistency that just makes me give my head a shake is this. I hang out a with the same group of friends each weekend and in this group is one guy who happens to own an iphone. Even in Canada, an iphone seems like a fairly big deal and, while I've never actually paid attention to the price of iphones, they've always seemed like a fairly expensive investment to me. We've spent hours taking pictures on the camera and distorting it. Everyone is this group of friends knows how to work the iphone and knows its special features while I'm basically clueless. I feel clumsy when I try to use it.


Then this weekend, while in the midst of playing with the iphone, I mentioned something about a microwave--I can't even remember what I was saying--because I stopped midsentence as everyone stopped and looked at me, blank stares all around. They asked me, "What's a microwave?" And so there I was, explaining a microwave, a very simple piece of technology which is not new or exciting, to those who know how to operate an iphone--cutting edge technology as though it's no big deal!