I Tried to Call..Really!

I am unlucky when it come to phones.
Ruminate on that for a minute.

When we got to Vanuatu that warm sunday two years ago, we were phoneless. We were not supposed to get phones until our two months training came to an end. However, after a couple of trainees left to go back home and we all complained, the office came to the conclusion that being able to speak to family back home on a regular basis might help in the adjustment process. With that in mind, they bought us all phones about a month into training. I remember, the phones were these brands called corals. My phone was black and red and it was the most wonderful present that I had received in my life. I immediately called my family and friends back home and started telling them all about Vanuatu and my snap conclusions about the culture and environment.

The honeymoon lasted for about four months. My phone started messing up. First of all, it got extremely scratched and worn looking. Probably because I dropped it. A lot. I would practice my catching with this phone whenever I was bored and I am not a very good catcher. However, phone makers should know that people like me exist and make their phones durable..right? Anyways, eventually, this phone became so bad that it would turn off randomly. I would be in the middle of writing a text message and it would just shut off. A lot of people missed extremely witty text messages from me because of my phone troubles. Then the sound went. I could only hear other people faintly and other people could hardly hear me at all. this would cause me to hold the phone close to my mouth and yell into it, then hold it to my ears straining to hear, then hold it again to my mouth and yell "WHAT DID YOU SAY?". I'm sure a lot of people found it funny and strange, especially since I had to make my phone calls in a public place. Oh well, we peace corp volunteers are in country to amuse people. Eventually, the screen would sometimes randomy turn white.

Lately, I had become obsessed with having a really flas phone, so while this was happening to my first phone, I had my mom send me a phone from the states. This phone was reliable. This was the phone we used when traveling internationaly..primarily to Nigeria. I had used it before and I knew it would work. But best of all, it was a flip phone! I wopuld be the only person on Malekula with a flip phone. I could just imagine hanging out with some people and hearing my phone ring. I would tell them "wait a second" whip out the phone, flip it, and hold it to my ear, all in one smooth motion. In addition, I thought it would have a better sensitivity to cell phone signals so that I could actually take calls inside my house instead of having to walk to the school canteen and have everybody and their mum listening to my phone calls. So, my mom sent the phone and it was wonderful..for all of three days, then it stopped working and before I could fix it, somebody stole it in the capital city. ...sigh.

I really did not want to spend a lot of money on another phone that I did not trust..there are too many fake products floating aorund in Vanuatu. So I decided to wait until November 2010 when I was going back to the States to purchase another phone that I knew would be genuine. So I continued using my first phone. Eventually, I got back to the States and when I was about to return, I went on a hunt for a phone. At this point, I was broke after traveling all over the country attempting to relive my college days with my college friends. I therefore could not afford a really flas "new" phone. People offered to buy me a phone, but being prideful, I attempted to prove that I was becoming really independent. I refused all offers of help. I decided to buy a reconditioned phone which was selling for less than thirty dollars. Another twenty dollars to unlock it for global usage and I had myself a nice, reconditioned flip phone, which meant I could still do the smooth one motion flip and answer maneuver.

I came back to Vanuatu and sure enough, my dreams were becoming a reality. People were shocked and awed by my new "flasness." Peace Corp volunteers and locals alike. The sensitivity to cell phone signals was better also. I still could not receive calls from my house, but I could receive text messages..sometimes. Two months after arriving..the phone started acting up. The battery charge was horrible. The phone could not last a day without needing to be recharged. If I actually used the phone to do more than text? well, it would not last an hour. It got to the point that I stopped using the phone, it was frustrating. To make matters worse, the phone could only hold twenty five text messages. 25!

I decided to buy a new phone and went to Lakatoro to get one. Lakatoro is the political and economic capital of Malampa province. Provinces in Vanuatu are like States in the United States. So, Lakatoro is a very important place. About as important as say, Atlanta is to Georgia. For almost two months, Lakatoro did not have phones for sale. A provincial capital did not have phones for sale. Thats like Boston running out of MOBILE PHONES for TWO MONTHS!! I would go to the place about twice a week looking to buy a phone. Transportation from my site to Lakatoro is 300 vatu one way, so I spent 1200 vatu every week trying to get a phone. Granted in US dollars, thats 12 dollars roughly, but thats a good amount of money here. I would have had a friend buy a phone from the capital city of port vila and send it to me, but the store kept telling me "next week" and I kept falling for it. Why did I keep falling for it you ask? well three reasons. I wanted to choose the phone I would buy myself, I did not really trust somebody else's judgement and two, I was being fiscally responsible..after all we are in a recession. Phones sold on my island are much cheaper than iin the big cities of Vila and Luganville because they always discount them on the Island. (I think because of the purchasing power of the people on the island). I really wanted to save 2000 vatu and I did not want to worry about paying the postage for the phone and the phone possibly going missing in transit. Lastly, the phones were already in stock at the store, however, the supplier of the phone - Digicel, had not given the authorization for the phones to be sold. I kept thinking that the authorization would come anytime, after all the phones were already in stock.

Eventually, during the second week of April, I got extremely angry after I checked again and was told that there were no phones for sale and that the phones in stock had been sent back that very day. I went back to my site, took out my sim card from my now non-working flip phone. I then called the peace corps office and told them to buy me a phone and give it to a teacher who just happened to be in Vila that week. The teacher brought it back the next week and there I was with a new samsung brand mobile phone, with a flash light too. Hopefully, this phone lasts me till the end of service, but I doubt it. This phone ended up costing me about 4000 vatu, the price I was trying to avoid iin the first place. To make matters worse, the week the teacher came back, they started selling phones again in Lakatoro and there were cheaper phones being sold. sigh.

That is my phone story. I am now on my fourth mobile phone, after 19 months in Vanuatu.

PS
This post as being over 1300 words, and it has been about mobile phones. Why could I not be this easily verbose during my college days?

flas = cool, flashy, nice..any other adjective you can think of to describe cool