22 July 2008

Where is Kay?

I am pondering where Kay is right this minute. With no phone contact at all, I am left with just a sketchy written itinerary of where she will be on any given day. It does not even tell me whether she is sleeping comfortably in a hostel bed or surrounded by malaria-ridden mosquitoes in a tent. How ever did we manage before mobile/cell phones? I suppose my mother could tell me how she coped in 1960 when I went off into the sunset on a two-week primary school trip to deepest Devon with only snail-mail as contact. The teachers stood over us making sure we wrote our letters home dutifully telling our parents what we had for tea and sending our love. With the advent of mobile phones, we have been spoiled. We can usually reach our children with the push of a keypad and know that they are safe or what they are doing. So right now I am going stir-crazy with a vivid imagination. All I know is that yesterday she climbed this

Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala

in a thunderstorm (according to the weather forecast for that region.) Thanks to the internet, I can call up pictures of the place, the weather, the satellite shots and all. So I am not completely in the dark. Furthermore, Wikipedia and other websites will give me even more information that I actually don't want to know. For example, they say that this particular volcano still regularly spits molten lava over its sides and care has to be taken by tourists when walking over it, as their shoes can melt!! They also quote the whole region as being prone to armed gun attacks on tourists, though that has subsided a bit (a bit?), because tourists now take armed guards with them (what?). Now, call me a worry-guts, but I am now chewing my fingernails down to the knuckles. If the molten lava doesn't kill her, a stray lightening bolt or an errant bullet will. That's assuming a rabid jaguar hasn't got there first. Who'd be a mum?

5 comments:

abcd said...

I know nothing I can say will stop you worrying but I bet she is having a ball and no news is good news!
I panic now if I have forgotten my mobile, it's just crazy, only a few years ago I lived perfectly well without one!

aims said...

Fern is right - no news is good news. It's that call in the early hours of the morning you don't want to get.

Remember when she does call in - not to break down sobbing and asking if she can come home now :0)

She's having a blast - we all should have given it a try.

Flowerpot said...

Imagination can be a terrible thing - as can the internet!! I do feel for you but I'm sure she's fine and having a wonderful time. HOpe she rings soon!

Hadriana's Treasures said...

I've been to Venezuela and Costa Rica and come back alive. I know this advice is plain silly but try not to think about the nasty bits. I'm sure she's fine. Hope the blogging helps (love the photos and the words). Mind you. I'm sure I'll be the same (worrying madly...I do already but in a different way)in 14/15 years time.
Big hugs. Hadriana.

ADDY said...

Thanks for all your support. As I say, it is silly that we managed without mobile phones in the past.