Snafus and Throwbacks

I am back on Facebook and gearing up to report on the Madagascar trip in a series of "recollections" of events and impressions.

I am still uncertain why I could not get either IPhone or IPad to do my bidding while in Madagascar. I had help from two or three techie traveling companions. The result? 10 or 15 mns. of service, two times during the entire trip, and only in the wee hours. Most of the time, the words popped up: “NO Internet Connection.” Popular conclusion drawn was this: Shoulda, coulda, woulda purchased beforehand a high-powered international service that leaped ancient, crumbling mission buildings with one single bound. Personal regret after the trip? If only I had taken a class on internet devices before going to Madagascar...

Oh well.

Surrounded by former classmates deep in Internet activity and adroit with any and all photography and text-producing machines, I concluded that I, KBL, somehow slipped through the 21st century media cracks. I am both Luddite and throwback, it seems.

To my detriment, I am sure, I am and always have been anomalous. A stylus and a cave wall are my natural media. Or a pen, or even better, a pencil and an old-fashioned cahier. Thank God they still make them. And coloring pencils for sketching. Had I had them in my hand at all times, the air of Manantantely, place where there’s honey—perfumed by burning wood or coal, eucalyptus, and bat dung—would have appeared before you in the very moment it wafted into my nostrils.

From now on, you will hear about my days in Madagascar through short textual reflections enhanced mostly by the photos and video clips graciously provided by my travel companions.

And that may be a good thing, after all, a Divine provision for one as deliberate and distant as I am wont to be when surrounded by the past and the present, both calling out to me at once, demanding their due, and my undivided attention.