Kipilefti

This post will make Chris Segal very happy.

So in America, I pretty much hated my cell phone. Sure, it was useful for coordinating things on the fly–in fact, I’m not sure how I would have done without it, we’d have had to plan things in advance or something–but I’ve never been particularly fond of phones and having one with me all the time just made matters worse.

But here in Tanzania, it’s totally different. My cell phone is my link with other PCVs, my family, my friends. Very few days have passed since I got to site that I didn’t send or receive a text message. In fact, it’s much more usual for me to Jiachie (a deal offered by my cell service provider that makes texts cheaper if you send more six of them in a day) and have extended conversations with other PCVs through text. I’ve gotten extremely fast at typing using the T9 text-guessing system built into my phone. When the network went down for almost a day last week, I got almost twitchy, worried about what I might be missing, wanting to text the other PCVs.

Even talking on the phone is no longer a dreaded event. It helps that pretty much the only people who call me are my family members, once a week on Sunday evenings. I look forward to the call all week, and really enjoy talking to them. It’s funny: I think I’ve talked more to them while halfway around the world than I did while I was in college.

It remains to be seen whether this need for a cell phone will stick with me when I return home, but I’m guessing that texting will be a lifelong habit. It’s so useful!