cell phone drama

I was never one of those people who was tied to my cell phone, and I never even sent a text message in the US. I was prepared to come to Paraguay, be completely out of touch with everyone and maybe get to email once a month when I went to the city.

But it turns out that Paraguay is very cell phone accessible, so much so that Peace Corps strikes a deal with the leading companies to get us deals on cell phones and monthly plans “as a security issue.” Certainly it’s nice to know that PC can get to us in case of an emergency, and vice versa, but mostly it’s good to be able to text message back and forth with other volunteers for support (and for fun), and I can make and receive calls from the US as well as send and receive texty-email messages. So I’ve been pretty lucky.

Except that my cell phone access has never been that simple. For my cell company, Personal, Tacuati is too far from the nearest cell phone tower to get GSM or digital service, so we have to buy and put up little antennas to connect to our phone to get service. There’s also often service at various locations in the street, but you have to know where to go and it’s never guaranteed, and the signal’s not strong enough to make or receive phone calls. In my old house, after months of sticking my hand out the window to get messages, and then a stressful trip to Asuncion where I found that the antenna all my neighbors told me to buy is quite expensive, I finally got Peace Corps to give me an antenna, and finally got a friend to help me put it up. When my grandmother in Florida died, I was able to talk to my family every day and after the funeral, and that was really important to me. So except for rainy or windy days, or when the service was out, I had fairly reliable cell phone service in my house.

But then last month I moved, and my new house, though a mere three houses back, is somehow in a dead zone of Personal service. I had friends over to help find the right place to put the antenna, but they gave up after a few minutes. Then I hired someone, thinking that formality would mean I’d actually get results, but after a couple days of raising the antenna and climbing onto the roof and cutting down trees, he too gave up. It seems there’s a spat of bad Personal service recently, and we figured maybe it was just a bad couple of days when NOBODY was getting cell reception, so we’d try again later. Except of course he never came back, so there’s been no trying again. And I’ve been somewhat resigned to going into the street like an idiot to check my messages and not being able to get or receive calls.

Until within the past four days there have been several problems with family and friends that I would have liked to have known about. No emergencies, nothing serious, but friend and family stuff that they were counting on me for. A fellow PCVs bike was stolen and she wanted to know if I’d send mine on a bus in the morning so she could borrow it since she uses it much more than I do – but I didn’t get the message til the next day. Today a friend broke up with her boyfriend, and I got the message hours and hours later – same day, sure, but if she was counting on me for support this afternoon it’s not quite the same to text her back at night. And my sister texted about being in “wedding planning hell,” and I feel so terrible that I can’t be there physically or “there” for her at this most stressful time. Hopefully she’ll text me a time and I’ll borrow someone’s antenna tomorrow and we’ll figure out whatever the crisis is.

None of these are life-threatening emergencies, but they’re still important events to me, and I hate that I can’t be there for people when they need me. It’d almost be better if I had no cell service at all – then we’d all know that once a month we’d catch up with each other, and I’d have accepted that I wouldn’t be a part at all of my sister’s wedding planning. But right now I have the expectation of being accessible without the reality, and it’s making me sad. Or mad.

Oh – and the funny thing is – for over 6 months now they’ve been building a Personal tower IN Tacuati!! Back in October people told me not to get an antenna because “enseguida” (very soon) the tower would be built and I would be able to have GSM digital service (using a cute, non-antenna-compatible new phone). I ignored them and got the antenna anyway, and last month when they told me the tower was going to be completed “enseguida” I ignored them again and started the business with my antenna. There’s always the nagging thought, though, that the day after I spend money or time to fix my antenna at home, that’ll be the day the antenna starts working. However, I have not put money on it yet, but I’d be willing to wager that that tower is not activated before I leave Tacuati.