The Cell Phone; A Revolution

The Cell Phone in Africa; A revolution!
Some day, when historians are looking back at our time, I believe that the cell phone will be right up there with the printing press as a way in which every day lives, even the poorest and most remote lives lived, were impacted. We bump along the most remote roads, for virtually hours, arrive in the most rustic locations, with no electricity or running water, and someone from a mud home with a thatched roof and one that could have been built in any century will walk over to his goats while talking on his cell phone. That man will have learned to read numbers in order to do this, and with his cell phone, he can offer his price, arrange a meeting, and close a deal. He is not on a golf course, or in an office tower, but he is doing the same thing that business people do everywhere, he is closing a deal by phone. I have seen women in town, with a baby strapped on the back and carrying wares perched on their heads, talking on a cell.
In Ghana, the cell phone is huge, and I know this is true for other places. It is one way where city and rural meet, and the change is profound. Cell phones are cheap here, really cheap. You can buy 10 minutes for 2 cedi,(about 1.20 cdn) enough to have a phone in an emergency. You can go to the nearest place that has electricity, or send your phone with a friend who is going, and send a few coins (maybe 25 cents) to get it charged. Somebody in a ramshackle kiosk with a Vodaphone, or Airtel, or MTN sign, who has access to electricity and 5 or 6 power bars will charge it for you and can sell you time on your phone. I have only charged my phone once here, and it really didn’t need it but I wasn’t sure how long I would have the charge. I have phoned home countless times, to Canada, and talked for over an hour at a time, and my $12 cdn only ran out yesterday. Introducing a cheap cell phone to millions of people has indeed made a big difference here. It is a small business and since in the towns, virtually everyone has a cell phone, that business is booming.
Being able to read a cell phone was one of the other expressed desires from our adult education participants and will be one of our upcoming learning programs. Even though many people can’t afford their own cell phone, one or two people in the village will use a micro loan in order to buy the phone, some minutes and access to a donkey and cart (someone else’s business). They become the ‘cell phone person’. There are towns with electricity that can be reached by donkey and cart from almost any village. The cell phone person becomes a business person and an emergency contact and the phone, something that the rural developing world has been without, is now available.
I will never again, curse my cell phone! It is a huge agent of change, especially if it is cheap and in Ghana there are many cheap, basic models .