In the World of Google

I picked up the phone and made a local call. I made it quick. In Haiti every second on the cell phone counts. Then, I noticed the app, a map on the screen with the logo of a highway. I tapped on it. A fuzzy satellite image appeared. At first, I could not clearly make out what location it could be. I tapped again, to make it wider and clearer. Then, I realized it was old Port-au-prince, as I had first guessed. I searched ‘my location.’ A dot came up at the supposed area that I was. Although things were still not so clear, I was elated simply to realize that I was using such technology in Haiti. I looked for the one place that concerned me the most and that would be the most obvious, the Toussaint Louverture International Airport. A huge purple line traced the way from my location to the airport. Then, I gasped, “Google!” Nothing is too far; nothing too isolated.

I sat there transfixed to the cell phone, moving it to various directions and trying to identify certain locations in the labyrinthine city. I was amazed just like a child discovering a new toy. I kept on navigating the system until my friend whose phone I was using stated, “This thing might eat all the card.” I jumped back to the reality of cellular phone in Haiti. I had already ignored the fact that making a call, sending a text, or using the Net is charged by the minute there. Nevertheless, the experience was great and the feeling sensational. I had been aware that Google had been out there tracing every inch of the planet. Yet, it never occurred to me that I would be in Haiti at this moment and circulating at GPX precision.

Previously I had always considered myself lost in Port-au-prince, a big slum with a system of transportation worse than anything anybody should wish to imagine. This was the first time I felt that I could get up and go somewhere and find my way around there. I never attempted to find out how much it cost to navigate the map. However, when I was returning to the airport, I followed the trace just like I saw it on the big purple line of the Google map.

By E.C. GRANMOUN

E.C. Granmoun is the author of "Bully: A Novel" ebook on amazon.com
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