DLC Blog

Technology’s Missionary

I’m back in beautiful Kabul on another missionary trip, of sorts. Life here for the average citizen is rough. I’m of the mind that a little bit of technology mixed into an educational system can offer folks a brighter future. It’s not easy convincing people who have sporadic electricity to put their faith into fancy boxes filled with colorful wires and the great intangible internet. But, as any good missionary would say, the work must be done.

What reassures me is the overwhelming amount of ingenuity I see and experience in Afghanistan on an almost per-second basis. In a country that has been ravaged by war and politics for generations now, I wonder how anyone has the energy to even wake up in the morning. There is no shortage of energy, though, and much of it is spent practicing resourcefulness. For example, traffic in Kabul is incredible. During peak transit times the roads are packed bumper to bumper. Even with all those cars, western-style gas stations are nearly non-existent. Instead you’ll find a guy every block, or so, ready to fill up your tank with a big jug of gasoline. On the Afghan/Pakistani border you might spot a car-carrying camel. Smugglers take them apart in Pakistan for transport, then put them all back together again on the Afghan side (no assembly instructions required for these guys). Don’t have the money to feed your flock of goats? No problem. Sheppard them to trash dumps through-out the city and let them feast on scraps. Life goes on regardless of the lack of infrastructure. Things that don’t work get fixed, and things that don’t exist are created. Substitution is not only a common practice in Afghanistan, it is an art form. Resourceful people seem to appreciate good tools, and the internet is arguably the most powerful tool in existence.

(image courtesy of Paul Avalone, Copyright 2006)

The ubiquity of mobile phones here tells me that even though many are wary of the professed utility of the standard PC, they welcome computational and communication technology with open hands. So, I sit here and exhale a missionary’s sigh of hope that all these colorful wires might actually help this country in educating its citizenry, feeding its hungry, curing its sick and comforting those who haven’t yet been afforded the opportunity to smile. Can the internet really do all that? My answering with anything but ‘yes’ would be blasphemy.

Michael C. VanHenley
Educational Support Coordinator
Digital Learning Commons

Click here for more information about the DLC’s partnership with the Center to Bridge the Digital Divide and our current work in Afghanistan.

Posted by Michael at December 15, 2006 07:39 AM in Social Studies.