I've gone and done it! I have two phones. It's only a matter of time before I have a third, bulging out of my back pocket.
In the past, my cell phone strategy has been to buy the cheapest Nokia on the market, the one with the flashlight and the intuitive menu and the easy-to-read screen in the glare of midday. I've bought around five of those in two years, because eventually they are either left on a counter-top in town, never to be seen again, or are so banged up (having been dropped on my concrete floor at least once a day) that text messages are no longer legible. Last month I went to a cellphone store and got myself a new Nokia. But then two weeks later, I got a SECOND phone. At dinner, I take out both phones and put them on the table. I check both for messages during meetings. And of course have been buying double the vouchers, furiously entering both Zain and Voda recharge numbers.
For a few months now, communicating has been in the hands of God. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. This all started when the leading cellphone networks, Vodacom and Zain, introduced special deals on talk time. Now, a Vodacom user can buy 60 minutes of talking time for 500 shillings (around 40 cents). Hallelujah! People have been calling and conversing with each other, rather than beeping (calling and hanging up to indicate that the other person should call back) or reducing phone conversations to their bare essence (ie: -Hello? -Where are you? -In town. -Ok, I'm coming. *quickly hang up) to reduce cost. But the cellphone networks apparently cannot handle the increased talk time. Now I often get a "Network Busy" message when I try to call. The "No Service" can last a minute or an hour, and I can't seem to figure out the pattern of bad connections.
So I improved my communication ability by getting a second number on a different network. When Zain tells me I have "Limited Service," Voda works like a charm. When Voda tells me "Network Busy," Zain gets me through the day. And when both are down, I dream about buying a Tigo line...
