sending all my love along the wire

It's not something most Americans think about, or at least I didn't before, but did you know that you have to have a telephone landline in order to have an ATM? I also quickly learned once coming here that to have Internet in a town you must also have a landline. I think we can all agree, in the twenty-first century, landlines are important!


Back in 2008 when I was finding out where I would settle down for the two years of my volunteer contract, they gave me the chance to say what type of place I'd like to live in. City or province was basically the choice. I said city, a place that's connected and reconnected with telephone lines, a place where I could access the Internet. So, I'm ashamed to say that I started crying when I heard the words, "Your town doesn't have a landline." Looking back, I know I over reacted. Life didn't end and I quickly found a way to get an Internet connection, yes a slow connection but let's focus on the word connection, at site and always had a handy reason to take the bus into the city. Life didn't end, but it was a pain when it came to uploading pictures or having to send in reports for Peace Corps that required high speed Internet.


You can imagine how stoked I was when I saw this announcement on the community bulletin board in town:




That's right, ATM=Land line=Internet!



That was back in March though, and based on past experience of expectations regarding time, I optimistically assumed that ATM would be up and running by early November... riiiight around the time my contract was up.



But Philippines, you showed me!! It is with great pleasure and glee that I announce that this is my FIRST blog update via the brand-spanking-new landline that is now attached to the house I'm staying in.


CAN YOU FEEL THE EXCITEMENT?!