Enjoying life without a laptop (for a bit!)

At team debrief on Sunday evening one of the girls commented on how much friendlier and less anxious everyone seems in Malawi. She reflected that in UK lots of people  are always seeming to get angry or stressed about their phones or laptops breaking or not performing properly. Ouch! That is exactly what I was like the past week or so as my laptop kept letting me down and life seemed to be caving in as a result. Poor Tim and the girls - what they had to put up with. I feel so bad looking back

But now, having inadvertently left my laptop at Heathrow (it's now been found and is being returned home) I find myself in the unusual situation of being in Africa without a laptop. And it's really quite nice!

Rather than spending my spare hours trying to keep on top of other bits and pieces, writing reports, sorting photos and posting blogs, I have had to offload those tasks to others, or delay them until another time. And as a result I have time to chat, to be, and to just enjoy the moment a lot more than has perhaps happened on some previous trips. 

Rather than being focused on accessing Internet so I can download emails and stay on top of every bit of communication I am enjoying the time spent ambling down the hill with team members, enjoying the view and living life in a simpler and gentler way. 

Yes there will be things I have to do when home to catch up, but I can definitely recommend forgetting the laptop every now and then. 

The initial moment of realising that I didn't have my laptop and not knowing where I had lost it was pretty heart stopping and anxious, but thanks to a wonderful combination of prayer and practical support from family and friends resulting in a laptop found, I am now in a lovely place of relative techno-freedom

Of course it's not total techno absence or I wouldn't be posting this, but God has definitely turned an apparently negative situation into s beautiful positive, as He so often does

May I remember this lesson for a long time and proactively 'forget the laptop' a bit more often going forwards.