On communicating by email
on Freetown Blog (Sierra Leone), 14/Nov/2009 11:41, 34 days ago
I've got the runs. Apologies if that is too much information, but I did say I would use my blog to keep people udpated with my movements (bad joke, sorry). It's nothing serious, I think; it is usually self-limiting within 4  days, and prevalence is about 50%, so I would have been lucky to avoid it. But for today, I have decided to allow myself to lounge round the house, groaning gently.There is something about feeling off colour that makes you want cool; and Lucozade; and home. It brings back a lot of memories for me about my various tropical illnesses as a young VSO. In those days there was no prospect of emailing or skyping for a bit of instant sympathy. Communicating with home involved air mail - usually an aerogram - a single piece of paper that folded to make its own envelope. It took around 3 weeks for my letters to get home, and a similar time for the response to get back in the other direction. I wrote most weeks and got used to the experience of receiving letters responding to things that I had written 6 weeks and several letters before.Today, in my fragile state, I think email is The Best. But, although I know it is a cliche, there was something about a letter that I suspect has gone for good. In 1982, I remember the first letter that arrived from my Dad and thinking how I had never really seen his hand-writing before, apart from his signature, or a note to the Vet or the AI man. But looking at it, I could imagine him coming in from the farm, cleaning himself up, and sitting down to write to me. It was probably only the usual news of family and village and weather, but  the collection of blue and red envelopes that grew month by month was like having a physical bit of home there with me. You just don't get that with email.