Drew Cogbill | Thesis Blog

In interviews and conversations, lots of people have told me about younger kids (ages 7-14) carrying around cell phones just to look cool.  In what I’ve seen, kids are using the phones as still and video cameras, as well as a video and music player.  I’ve seen songs transferred via bluetooth and groups of people crowded around a cell phone screen watching a music video.  Below is Shewan with his friends looking at his red Razr phone, which he brought to one of the summer camps held at schools in western Belize my group is running.  His aunt, who lives in the States, sent it to him as a present.

I saw the guy below in the blue tshirt walking in the center of San Ignacio, and though the picture does it no justice, he had tucked the earbuds of his iPod behind his ears though he wasn’t listening to music.  (**Edit 28 August 2008 - I saw this same things several more times during the rest of my time in Belize.)

St. Lucia uses British outlets and voltage, but you will often see American outlets adapted because many of the good coming into the country have American prongs.  This picture taken in a community center in a fishing village called Anse la Raye, particularly well shows how readily people switch between them.

There is a given and understood social practice that after you take a picture on a digital camera, they are allowed to see it.  I saw this happen time and time again in St. Lucia.  Even when I took a picture of a toddler, he grasp out for the camera to see himself.

This is Sister Claire, a nun in her 70’s who runs a pre-school we did some work with.  The convent recently bought her a mobile phone, and though she claims she doesn’t understand how to use it well, she can easily make and receive calls.  Furthermore, she’s one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.