A couple of surprising things

Just wanted to briefly mention a couple of recent experiences that made us think, "Now, this is really odd."

·       At a recommended "authentic" Chinese restaurant in Arusha, Tanzania, we listened to country singer Don Williams over the restaurant's sound system as we ate.   

·       We went to an outdoor market in a Maasai village about 10km up a dirt road into the mountains above our small town.  The village looked very poor to us--tiny mud huts without doors, and lots of dust.  We appeared to be the only non-Maasai there, and were almost the only people in Western clothes.  The market had the usual produce and cloth, but ALSO a kiosk selling cell phones that was crowded with buyers!   

One thing we've noticed is that Tanzania seems to have skipped a layer or two of technology.  For example, I haven't seen a single land line phone in the 3 months we've lived here, but many, many people have cell phones.  Typewriters are very rare.  Most things are generally written by hand, but some are typed and printed from a computer.    

I guess my conclusions are that globalization is here, and that the rate of technology change is fast, but uneven.  Not startling revelations, but made more meaningful to us lately.