Grandma Gets An Android

There's this thing with aged people and not wanting to try new things. They always prefer doing things the way they've always known it to be done,most of them at least. Trying new things to them is hard nut to crack.

It's a struggle for them to embrace civilization and know that there are now modern ways of doing things, simplified ways even.

We call my aunt 'grandma' because she is the oldest in the family and since my original grandma had passed away years ago she is now acting like a grandma for us in place of her. I stayed with her for a couple of years and I can say it's not easy to take care of them. When I said aged people find it hard to try new things,she is included.
She believes the 'old school'method of doing things works more for her than the 'new generation' way.

For example,when we got a washing machine to help out around the home,it didn't sit so well with her
Why will you need a machine to wash your clothes when you have hands?
It took her a while before she started to see the efficiency of the machine. Before then,when you wash her dresses with the washer and spread it out to dry in the sun. You're happy that at least one part of the chore is outta your way,only for you to come and see that all those dresses that are already sun-dry are back in a bucket filled with with water for rewashing.

You're like
What did I do to deserve this?😥

When I try to ask why,she says "that machine doesn't wash my dresses properly,I better wash them myself,with my hands"
You're looking at how weak and frail her hands are and youre wondering how she going to wash better than the washing machine. Now you have to wash it yourself because, she's going to tell the whole neighborhood how you make her do chores in home if you don't.

Or when she argues that it's better to chop her tomatoes than to blend it while making her food. Apparently when you blend it,she feels like the nutrients are gone but when you chop it she can actually see them while she eats,that way,she feels better while eating it
I can never understand this theory.

Let's get to the time when she got an android phone. Prior to 2019,she was having this small phone with buttons on them which she believes is easier to manipulate than the android,because she only uses it to makes and call alone. Even though,her children had tried to get her an android so they can call her through WhatsApp,but she always have an excuse to give. Now, following the outbreak of the Covid-19,when there was limited physical contact and mobility,her children had to get her an android.

She was happy though. But you can also hear her say "learning how to use it will be a big work for me"
I quickly set up the phone for her and started to teach her how to use "wassup" as she would call it. It wasn't easy teaching her to always turn on her data each time she wants to send or recieve messages on Whatsapp,or to remember to turn it off when she's done. Most of the times,she open her Whatsapp and forgets to turn on her data but still expects messages to pop up and when it doesn't,you can hear her start saying "are you sure this phone brand is the right one?"

Like she knows anything about phones.

Or she says "this phone is faulty,Joy come and take a look at how this phone is misbehaving"
Then I will step out as a phone technician in all my glory with my superwoman cape and turn on the data and everything goes back to normal. And she's like "wow, you're so smart. How'd you fix it?"

It's that simple Grandma,just turn on your data.

When she pretty much got the hang of her "wassup",I decided to teach her how to use Zoom and I guess Zoom was more problematic for her. The whole 'mute' and 'unmute' back and forth process is just something she couldn't understand. Sometimes during an important meeting ,she starts saying whatever she has to say without caring if the audience is hearing her or not.

Instead of just unmuting her device,she blames the network service provider one million times for bad network service. When she finally unmutes the device and her point is made she forgets to mute back and that's the time she'll start telling you stories of what happened in the 70's and 80's when dogs and cats were friends and the moon was out in the daytime

Good old days.

I'm not even talking about when she doesn't know when to turn on or turn off her video during Zoom meetings. I come back home most times to see that she has successfully comnected to a zoom meeting all by herself and I'm feeling proud of myself for teaching her so well.

But why is tying a wrapper across her chest like the real African mother and her video isn't turn off?
She tells you they can't see her because she thought she turned her video off but you can see it clear that she didn't.

It's been a rollercoaster ride helping her to get acquainted with the modern things around her. I just started teaching her recently how to handle the remote control of the Air Conditioner.

"The higher the number,the lower the temperature gets"

I hope this ends in peace,or I'll come back home one day to our house colder than North Pole and my Grandma frozen.
That is, after she must have disowned me a thousand times in her heart.