Phonedamental Needs

One of the basic things one must have when living in the Philippines is the cellphone. Almost everybody here uses it. From kids to senior citizens, from street vendors to company executives, cellphones are in their hands. Calling? yes, but mostly texting. The Philippines is arguably the texting capital of the world. Cellphones are so much a part of life here that I can't imagine how they survived without this modern device many years ago.

Inasmuch as my wife and I are now settling in this country, we needed to have our own cellphones. This is so that we can become part of the local culture. We wanted to go with a two-year plan so as to avoid the panic of having to locate the nearest "load" center when the minutes are running out. Majority of Filipinos are into the prepaid method where they buy minutes of usage. When the minutes are all used up, they will go to a "load" center to buy more minutes. Thankfully load centers are almost everywhere - from the tiny variety stores within the neighborhood to the specialty stores at malls.

The advantage of a two-year plan is of course, you get the cellphone for free. Cynthia and I went to Smart Phone - one of the more popular providers here in the Philippines. It took almost 24 hours for us to get approved because being new to the country, our credit lines have not been established yet. Finally we got a call from the agent informing us of the good news that we've been approved and can we please come to the store at 10 am the following day.

Needless to say, we were there as soon as they opened. Cynthia wanted a no-frills phone that she can just use for calling and texting. Moi, on the other hand, desired something a bit fancy. You know, with access to the internet and all that.

May I present.........
Cynthia's cellphone:

My cellphone:

I can now safely say..we belong here! :-)