E.T. phone home

The world is a click away

Many many years ago, I often wondered how OCWs (Overseas Contract Workers - that's how Overseas Filipino Workers were known then) could overcome the long separation from their families. Letters and cards could be posted but it makes a lot of difference to hear the sound of voices long missed.  I know there was a time when they would record messages on casette tapes and have them carried by leaving or returning compatriots.  Then came the prepaid phone cards which allowed them to call from any public phone.... and one could see the used cards littering near phone booths in Hong Kong.  But that was a one-way convenience as it was usually a call to home.  The mobile phone revolution in the early 90's eased the hardships of separation.  I am quite fortunate that my being overseas for a length of time happened in this day and age.  I have my old phone with the postpaid Philippine SIM card so I don't run out of airtime, and a new phone which has a local prepaid SIM.  These are not smartphones but the camera and radio features are good enough for me.  Equally important is my MacBook Pro.  I bought a local modem and a monthly data services subscription.  Almost all VSO vols here in Gulu have their own laptops and modems.  It is wonderful to be able to talk face-to-face in Skype, converse at the cheapest means through chat (one-on-one or conference), pay household bills via online banking, and get news from newspaper websites.  I am certain that most of the 8

Don't leave home without them

million Filipinos overseas do the same thing now, whether on their private computers or in internet cafes.  I once showed my African colleagues how Skype works.  My children were waving and greeting them on the screen, and my colleagues were just mesmerized.  They said that I would not miss my family at all.  With my total dependence on my mobile phone and computer, I have to journalize

Screen shot of a Skype session

when power is out and back; this disruption is a daily thing but there has really been no pattern to it.  Email is my first and last orders of the day since I am 5 hours behind Manila time.  If I don't hear from anyone for awhile, I just go to Facebook and surely I would know what's happening to their day. 

    A send-off gift from my colleagues at work.
It makes me feel at home.

In 1982, when I saw the movie E.T. where it was trying to phone home via satellite, I thought then that that scene was just for aliens.  Today, anyone with no mobile phone maybe is the alien (either by choice or circumstance). No offense meant, as I am an alien too.