Dee Randall wrote:


>
> Americans do NOT assume that that everyone in the world, including some of
> their fellow Americans, own cells phones, cars, have toilets, have
> electronics....

You don't know how many Americans (and Europeans for that matter) I
have heard here in Honduras ask for phone numbers, cell phone numbers,
email addresses, etc. They just assume that people have these
conveniences. Many but not all, and that were the operative words in my
statement, assume people everywhere else are just like them...with all
the modern conveniences immediately at hand. It just ain't so.

A friend just got her phone number issued to her after a 4 year wait.
It will be another 6 months to a year before it is actually installed.
If she needs to make a call, she needs to find someone with phone or
walk the three miles into town to use the public phone in front of the
phone company office. Oh yeah....and for toilets and showers......her
mother has a screened off area in her yard with a hole for the toilet
and another screened off area with a 55gal drum that has a hose
attached to it as a shower. The village her mother lives in has one
phone for about 75 families. It is only accessible from 8a.m. to 8p.m.,
outgoing calls only. I knew the score before I moved here about phones,
TV, internet, etc. We'd still be waiting for a phone but the landlord
assigned one of his business lines to our house.
Americans that I've seen here are stunned when they are told there are
no private phone lines, no internet access, no TV reception, in many of
the small villages within 5 miles of town. I witness these assumptions
every time a new batch of Americans shows up in town. It's amazing
watching the show.

Sandi