getting internet and losing "it"

I am very thankful for the technology that we have here in Mali.  I’ve heard stories from people who have been here a long time that illustrate the amazing advances that have been made.  Apparently,  25 years ago it cost $10 per minute for a phone call to the states, and that was IF you could get through on the line.  Now, at any moment I can dial someone in the states on my cell phone at 40 cents per minute, or better yet I can connect with them for free on Skype and sort of see them as we talk.  I say “sort of see them” because our internet connection is a bit slow and the skype picture tends to be blurry and freeze up.  But I’m glad to have the technology we have, even if it has its issues!

There is more than 1 company that provides internet here, but something like 95% is through Orange, which is a company out of France.  Orange offers a few different possibilities for connecting online.  There is a usb stick that you can plug in and use anywhere, but it runs pretty slowly and the prepaid credit gets used up pretty quickly.  There is the “Flybox” which has supposedly faster speeds but isn’t cheap and you have to recharge when the credit runs out, at least monthly.  You can also prepay a bit of credit on your phone and connect if you have a smartphone.  What we have is called “Livebox” and it is a router in our office connected to an antenna on the roof.  You can pay monthly for unlimited internet, but if you pay for 12 months at a time you get a better price.  So we pay the 1 year subscription, which costs around $500.  Not cheap, huh?

Our annual subscription was going to end on February 15^th.  I went to the Orange office with a wad of cash on February 1^st.  I wanted to get it paid early so I could forget about it and continue with life. 
When I went in the office, which is just one big room with 3 desks surrounded by chairs sat on by people waiting to be helped, I had to sit and wait my turn.  When it was my turn I was told that they don’t take the annual subscription payments in their office, but I’d have to pay at a bank downtown and then bring them the receipt back to be processed.  So… now I had to drive around downtown (avoiding all the motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians, donkey carts, and push carts competing for space in the narrow potholed roads) and try to figure out which bank is Atlantic Bank.  I think there are about 7 banks in town and I don’t seem to pay attention to their names.  So I found Atlantic Bank and went inside where there were at least 12 people waiting to be helped. 
This bank actually has those little paper tickets with numbers coming out of a dispenser so that you know who goes next.  While those tickets were impressive, I was not thrilled to have to wait over 30 minutes to pay my internet subscription.  I finally paid and got my receipt and brought it back down the road to the Orange office.  When I brought it in I was told that they would scan and send it to the main regional office and that I could come back next week to get the receipt and another service agreement page.  I asked if I needed a photocopy of the receipt now and was told “no.”  I figured I trusted them and left it at that. 

The next week when I went in to get the papers, I was told that they weren’t ready yet so to come back in a few days.  I went back in a few days and they took down my number and said they’d call when my papers were ready to be picked up.
Then, on February 19^th our internet cut out.  I wasn’t sure if it was just at our house or if it could be a widespread internet problem since we have those often enough.   Since it was Friday afternoon I couldn’t do anything about it until Monday when the office would be open again.

Monday morning I went in and waited my turn in line with the rest of the small crowd that had already gathered.  When it was my turn to be helped, I went and sat in the chair facing a desk with a lady in business attire and a lovely shade of pink lipstick.
I explained that I had paid my bill a few weeks ago but never got the paperwork, and that since Friday our internet had been cut at the house.  The lady started pulling piles of disorderly papers out of desk drawers and from a cardboard box sitting on the floor behind her chair.

Lipstick Lady:  Do you have a copy of your receipt from Atlantic Bank?
Me:         No, you guys said I didn’t need one.
LL:            Well, I don’t know where your receipt is now, so could you go down to Atlantic Bank and see if they can find a copy of it?

(OK, so let me take a second to admit that I KNOW that the way to get what you want here is to smile and joke around; to keep things light and be agreeable.  That’s probably good advice for any social interaction anywhere, but especially true in West Africa.

But, I’m human.  And I lost “it.” 
I lost my cool, lost my composure, lost my smile and joking demeanor.  As I said, the office is just one big room, so anyone speaking loudly can be heard by everyone present.  I spoke loud enough for everyone to hear.  I became the “ugly American.”)

Me:        Wait.  You want me to go down to Atlantic Bank and see if they can find a copy of the receipt that you guys told me I didn’t need a copy of for the bill I paid weeks ago that you never processed?!
Do you know what I’ve already done to get this bill paid?
I came here and waited for someone to tell me to go pay at Atlantic Bank because for some reason you don’t take payments here.  Then I wandered around downtown until I found Atlantic Bank, and then I had to take a ticket and wait a long time to pay the 264,000 francs.  I brought the receipt back here and I’ve been back twice asking for the completed paperwork.  Now I’ve been with no internet since Friday.  And you want me to go wait in line at the bank so they can see if they possibly might be able to find a receipt?!

LL:           (quietly)  Are you upset?
Me:        (incredulous)  I think that’s clear!

LL started digging through the messy piles of papers.

Me:        And you know what the problem is here?  There isn’t any competition for internet service.  If I want internet at home I have to come here and pay whatever overly high price Orange sets and deal with my receipt not being processed even though I paid it in advance, because there is no choice.  There isn’t a competitor to push Orange to give better service.  And what is this? (I motion to the floor)  This is the official Orange Office and your paperwork is in a cardboard box on the floor?  There is clearly some room for improvement.

At the end of my rant I saw my name on one of the papers and pointed it out.  Lipstick Lady said she would make some calls and that hopefully our internet would be working shortly.

So I went home.  But the internet didn’t come on.  I went back on Tuesday and LL said they needed a code number from our previous year’s bill, so could I go home and find that.  I went and got that and brought it back and LL gave me her number and asked me to call her when our internet came on so that she would know she didn’t need to keep calling the regional office.  The internet never came on though.
On Wednesday morning my neighbor came over and when I mentioned that we hadn’t had internet since the previous Friday, she pulled out her phone and called an Orange technician she knows.  He said he would come to the house to get it working.  That was at 11.  At 6:15pm when I was in English class and JP was out my neighbor let me know that the technician had just called her.  He was standing at our gate knocking but no one was home so he left.
Finally the technician came to the house on Thursday at noon and got us connected again.  It shouldn’t have to be this hard.  But as I said, I am very thankful for the technology we have!  Maybe next year I can get JP to take care of paying the internet bill?  I still don't have the new service agreement paperwork.  I may or may not go and see if they can find it tomorrow morning.