PoGo

I had heard about this little gadget on David DuChemin’s blog. It’s called a PoGo by Zink. It’s a “Polaroid” on the “Go”. The little printer is about the size of a portable hard drive that connects directly to your camera via a USB cord. Select a picture on your camera with Pictbridge then hit “print’. After a few moments of the file transfering, the photograph starts to emerge from the PoGo. Anyways, I was very fortunate to have a PoGo land in my lap just before leaving for Thailand. I found it to be a great ice-breaker with strangers. One in particular was Velda the scooter rental lady.

Velda had rented us scooters for a few days while in Chiang Mai. I did not get to know her that well when I dropped by for a few days in a row to pay for each days rental. When I asked to take her photograph upon returning the scooters, is when I started to feel more like a friend than a client. She was shy at first because of her swollen cheek. She said was caused by a burst blood vessel. After very little persuasion she agreed to be photograhed. Like all Thai people, she really enjoyed being photographed.

I proceeded to pull out the PoGo and print off a few pictures for her. She was very impressed with the technology. She had a great smile as the print was emerging from the PoGo. This is when she started to open up about herself. I guess most of her clients had no interest in her other than business. I suppose by me taking her photograph and handing her a print made her realize that we were a little more than clients. We ended up talking about her situation.

Velda is fifty years old and was born in the house that her shop was attached to. Her mother was also born in the same house! I cant say that I know anybody in Canada that has that same story. In Thailand most people live where they work. The store front is their shop with their residence attached to the back or top of the shop. This was the case with Velda.

Velda told me about her daughter. I never caught her name but she was twenty-five years old and going to University. Velda was concerned about the fact that her daughter failed a course. Failing this course would be very costly to Velda as the daughter could not get her degree without THAT course. Velda would have to find the money to put her through the course again. Velda did not seem disappointed in her daughter at all. She only seemed concerned about coming up with the money to get her daughter through school. That was very important to Velda. She wants her daughter to succeed regardless of any disappointments along the way. She was very proud of her daughter because she was going to be an accountant.

Velda also spoke of her sixteen year old son. He was doing well in high school and was learning mechanics. He wants to be a mechanic to help Velda with the scooters. I must say, he had a pretty funky scooter too. He took very good care of his bike.

When I return to Chiang Mai some day, I will for sure visiting Velda again to rent a scooter from her. I was told that Thai people have very long memory’s. I am sure she will remember me as I will remember her. Below are the pictures of Velda and the PoGo in action. You can find PoGo at Amazon.com.