Actually wifi is available here and there in the larger towns, but we are travelling between the middle of nowhere and the centre of nothing. We pull up to a flat piece of sandy road, or grassy field or packed soil, where we either put up a tent or just lay out our mats to sleep under the stars. A fire is laid and Sophie the truck is transformed into a kitchen of sorts.
The few towns we pass through do have an impressive array of technology on offer. Besides the odd internet cafe (a corrugated box on the side of a road for example) there are bank ATMs. They don't often work, but they are there. Solar panels on rooves or stuck on a low post in the yard are a common sight, as are water tanks that connect to the solar panels, and LED lights that store up daily sunshine for evening light.
Everyone seems to have a cell phone, so communicating with friends and family is easy. Without access to electricity in their daily lives, people see phones as necessities, as lifelines and pretty much as a physcial extension to their ear. Of course without electricity the only way to power up your lifeline is with batteries, and we found entire shop walls full of different sizes and types of batteries.
There is a lot of competition for the various cellphone companies. My vote goes to vodaphone, whose orange signs were seen everywhere, even on milage signs in the desert.
*BTW, if you ever need something to be seen from from a long way off, particularly in a desert, make sure it is coloured orange!
These operators are territorial and charge fees to make calls to another network, but everyone uses a SIM card for each network and then swaps them around as desired. Of course all the companies offer cheaper calls in the evenings or weekends or to a limited number of phone numbers, and by using different networks at different times of the day people here stay in touch. Family is all in Africa, and communicating over vast distances has enhanced and strengthened already strong ties.
Phones are used here for more than just talking. Other must-have features are radio, camera and a torch. Texting is hugely popular (although painfully slowly typed I've found). But the real
breakthrough is mobile banking. This is a huge deal for people who could never get bank accounts. Now they can make transactions, even with small amounts, allowing them to save for the first time and develop a credit history. Their phones are used to buy food and pay bills. Bank balances can be checked, and money can be transferred to the account of someone else, maybe hundreds of miles away and dependant on family members sending money. Mobile banking is perfect for societies that have little or no infrastructure, so it is an ideal incubation locale.
Computers have always been too expensive for the majority of Africans, most of whom have never had a home phone line. A cellphone is cheaper to buy, cheaper to run and is always on you. Our guides are always looking things up whenever they are asked a question they don't know, and will have the answer for us within minutes, such as "What is that bird?" and "How do you make babootie?" and "Is Nelson Mandela still alive?"
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