Finding signals
I had to turn off my cellphone from the time we boarded the plane from Terminal 3 not because it is required, but because there is no signal for Globe in Catanduanes. That means that my cellphone was turned on only when we came back from the trip. It is good my family and everybody in Tabugoc were using Smart sim cards. They can still make use of their cellphones provided they go out of the house and look for a signal.
Yes, they have to look for the signal. But where? That becomes the problem. Some of us have to go to the nearby plaza where the basketball court is located just to find it. And it’s not easy. Some local folks advise us to go up the mountain. And that’s not physically possible all the time.
In one of those lazy afternoons, the men in the family decided to kill time by playing basketball. I went with them carrying with me my camera to shoot whatever was interesting. While I was sitting there watching them play, I noticed a group of teenagers hanging and getting something under the Talisay tree. Each of them alternatingly doing so. I had to strain my neck and look closer on what was it they were doing. Ahhh, they were hanging their cellphones and waiting for text messages under that tree. So, there must be a signal there? Yes, there is sometimes but it comes and goes. They had to stay there and wait.
As for me, I had to bear the circumstances rather than break my bones looking for a signal. The people trying to find and contact me will sooner find out that I had to pop out of their lives for a week. After all, I was in a vacation, wasn’t I?