Kenya hear me now?

Contrary to popular belief, even though we’re in a Third World country, communication is generally quite good in Kenya. Upon arriving, after setting our bags in the house, Mzee Mungai promptly said, “go to Nakumatt and buy a phone”. We’ve come to find out that even though much of the country does not have ready access to potable water, nearly everyone has a cell phone.

I entered Nakumatt and found the kiosk with the familiar sight of all manner of cell phone. Everything from the most basic to the newest Droid. We hadn’t planned on getting a cell phone, but it seems like it’s the only way people communicate, so it was a necessity. What I was looking for was a phone that could hold phone numbers, receive texts, and make calls. I immediately moved to the basic phone section and honed on a small Nokia phone. Black and white screen, roughly 25 pixels on the 1x1 screen. 2000 KSH (about $25) for the phone, and pay as you go with minutes. No contracts, no service plans. After brief deliberation, I decided to go with Zain as a provider (instead of Safaricom). I purchased 1000KSH of airtime (3 KSH per minute, 1 KSH for text), and was on my way. Another awesome thing about the Kenyan cell phone system is that if I don’t like my Zain service, the next time I purchase minutes, I just buy Safaricom minutes. This makes sense; what the hell is wrong with our country?

So my new phone has other amazing features: 1) When I save numbers to my phone book, I can choose graphics to represent that person. My options are “boy face” and “girl face”. I’ll definitely take advantage of this ingenious feature by reminding myself of the gender of the person I’m calling immediately before the call. 2) The battery lasts forever. I have not tested it to its limits, but I have gone one week without charging, and still had a few bars of battery. Compare this to my phone in the states, well, “phone” is probably a generous description of that object. Greater than 50% of the time the screen was in what we affectionately called “plaid mode”, which as you might imagine, is not the best for viewing. This made my phone quite like a landline without caller ID; I just get crazy and answer any old incoming call, and I’ll have to consult my memory to dial phone numbers. For this service I am charged $50 per month and am not eligible for a new phone for another 18 months unless I want to pay $5,000, give or take.

Joking aside, it is pretty amazing how cell phone technology here has leapfrogged previous iterations. Cell phone service is ubiquitous, but there are few landlines. So far service has been fantastic without any dropped calls or static-filled lines; c'mon, America...