Thoughts from our trip...

Ok, so this isn't going to be my typical projects type of post, but more some thoughts and observations from the trip to Honduras my family took..

I'm sure these observations aren't unique to the Honduran lifestyle, but probably pretty much any "under-developed" country.

The biggest observation and probably the starkest contrast with what I'm used to, and even practice myself, is the frugality (is that even a word?). I didn't have to look far to see items that we here in the states would call "trash, garbage, useless." Yet here were people using the items, beyond their "usable" life. A wheel-barrow bent totally out of shape, rusted through where the supports attach the wheel to the bucket, yet welded metal back into place to make it usable again. Vehicles in various states of disarray, bent, wrecked, but still being driven and not worried about what others think.

Case in point as well, at the orphanage where they recently dedicated a computer lab some donated laptops. Apparently written off by an American company, but here they were being used by the children to learn about computers. I changed settings, told windows to be less pretty, removed some applications that are unnecessary for the usage of the computers, and took a "donor" laptop to replace missing keys. All in all they ended up with 6 laptops that have been abused, and now are in a usable state for the children to work with. I should have taken some pics however Jodi had the camera and I didn't think about it til now. Also, the orphanage had one computer that they have been using for 6 or more years where they keep their records, photos of the children etc. It had some issue, however where an American company/individual would have written it off and just purchased a replacement, they were interested in getting the issues it was having addressed so they could continue to use it.

It just got me thinking about my life, how comfortable I have it, and yet my mentality that matches the typical American of replace it even if it is still usable, or could be made usable again, but in poor shape. This permeates life here, and while I can honestly say that in actuality I could be worse (My home personal computer is actually much older than the main system the orphanage uses..) I still see room for improvement. How much could be saved by taking care of things properly, and truly using them to the end of their life, and if possible beyond..

How much better could we live life if we, as Americans, learned to be content with what we have learning to save money by repairing rather than replacing items. There lies a problem with this though, in that the society we live in doesn't agree with this mentality. As such we live in such a throw-away society that items are not really made to last, let alone be repaired for a reasonable cost. Have we also lost the skilled labor to do repairs at a reasonable cost as well? Do these things combine to make the "low cost" of replacement more likely than attempting a repair?

As far as computers go, I guess I'm lucky in that that is what I love to do. I've milked years out of my home systems, and also been able to take bits and pieces from systems that others have decided were easier to replace than repair to manage to keep a system that is still reasonably fast enough for 95% of what I need/want to do on it. Had I needed to take it to a "skilled" shop to keep the system going, I'd probably have not been able to justify the cost long ago. $65/hr for labor (at one shop that is fairly local) would add up quickly, when a replacement system that is faster and newer would only cost in the area of $500.

I guess that is part of why for friends and family I do computer work to keep systems running well past the "end of life" as much as I'm able. It really does help them to save the labor/replacement cost.

So what do we need to do as a society to get back to the point where we repair as fast as we replace? Is this even possible as far away from the concept as we have moved?

Something to think about I guess..