Cell Phone Craze In The Amazon?

You are walking down the beach on the Amazon river. There are fisherman in small wooden boats, feries for small towns, barges with cattle and ocean going freightors. All of them have peoplke with the ir cell phones out, joined in on the cellphone craze.

As you look up the beach you can mark your position by where the cell phone towers are located. Cell phones are an important part of peoples lives here. Many of the poorer people own one, but have no phone in their home. If you have a small businees - you need a cellphone here. It is very inexpensive compared to a land line. Most people here use a pre paid card system.

The deals are better in the USA though, it is a technology that is very expensive but greatly desired. A large number of people have cell phones and not just the financialy well off.

So to my suprise I (Wayne) learned a hard lesson about friendship and cell phones. In a discussion with one of my friends he ask me the question. “Do you know why I do not call you any more on the phone?” His answered surprised me. “It cost me money to call you, most the time you kids answer the phone and you are not home. Get a cell phone and I will call you!”

It ends up after talking to a number of people the cell phone is an important device to build friendships. People here want to know you care and know that when they have you on the cell phone you are giving them your time and attention. They do not want to wait till you call back. It is to important. So you call them on their cell phone and get their immediate attention.

So what if they do not have the money to pay for the call. They call collect. There is a custom here. If you have the money to pay the phone bill your friends call you collect (from their cell phone) and hang up. On the cell phone you have caller ID so you know who it is. If you want to talk with them you call them back. If they are really one of your friends you call them back.

There is one good thing about this system. Everyone knows it is expensive. So most the time your conversations are short. And then there is the messaging service. You know sending messages over your cell phone. Well I am still trying to understand that world. Sending text in English is easy compared to trying to use the Portuguese charater set.

It is amazing you can be in the heart of the jungle surrounded by large trees, thick forest, and mud. Pull out your cell phone and call your friends to rescue you. Only in the Amazon.