Internet Woes

I have purchased a modem for my phone that allows me to get wireless internet anywhere that Vodacom has service. My host father buys 500MB at a time, which lasts him about a month. I knew I would want to Skype and upload some pictures for my blog, so I bought a 2GB package, and was hoping it would go about a month and a half to two months.

1 week and 2 days after I purchased a 2GB data plan…..it ran out. My host father swore there was no possible way I could have used that much data, so I brought it back to the store to get “fixed.” When the vendor determined it had run out, (in the middle of working with 3 other people), he just added on 2GB more of data (without taking any money). At the same time I was asking another guy how I could have used so much data so quickly and what my best options were to avoid doing it in the future. He told me that my best bet was to buy either a one month or three month unlimited data plan. This was an obvious solution to my problem, so I told the man working on my modem that I wanted an unlimited 3 month plan for 162,000 TZ shillings instead of 2GBs worth that lasts me only 1 week for 94,000…..an obvious choice.

Unfortunately, the man at the counter (again without taking any money) had already put on 2GB and told me that I had to pay for it, use it, and then come back and buy the unlimited plan if I wanted it. Sorry, it was too late.

After about an hour of arguing with the people with my host-sister (in both English and Swahili) they finally caved in and gave me the unlimited plan I wanted. Apparently our femaleness and my whiteness was mistaken for stupidness…..but when I told them that I would walk out of the store and pay them nothing if they did not switch the plan, they conveniently remembered that they knew how to fix the problem.

On the plus side: I now have unlimited internet access and the ability to upload and download.
On the down side: This connection is significantly slower….