Calling Me on the Public Telephone

I was catching up with my Dad on the phone today, trying to help him get set up with Skype so that we can talk more often and cheaper and realized that I may not have explained the public telephone in Rinconada with all the detail and context that it deserves.

Development has happened very quickly here in the lowlands of Piura. Electricity came to Rinconada Llicuar about 8 years ago. Since then townspeople have gained running water in almost every house (albeit for 2 hours every other day), a waste water system (i.e. flush toilets) in about 40% of houses, and occasional trash collection when the folks down at city hall remember. A few months ago there was even a cable television company going from house to house selling cable magico with more than 100 channels. In terms of communication there is a brand new Internet cafe in town and many families have a cell phone. These function during weekdays and when it's not very windy.

Yet the more things change the more they stay the same. The public telephone in town (1) is a satellite phone because most of rural Peru doesn't have land lines. It's almost like a regular phone but there is a delay of several seconds between you speaking words and your conversation partner hearing them. It's usually much cheaper to talk from the public phone than from my cell so if I'm calling internationally I usually make the extra effort. For some, like my grandfather who can´t really hear on the phone anyway, the delay is an insurmountable hurdle to conversation so I call him on my cell. Fortunately, he's home on weekdays. Others, like my brothers are willing to make the sacrifice in conversation tempo.

Before towns down here got electricity they ran some electric devices from car batteries. So for 50 years or so Piuranos have made good use of loud speaker systems or emissoras. Every town has them. This is a loud speaker attached to a tall bamboo pole that is connected to somebody´s house and someone, usually the housewife is in charge the microphone. These are very important ladies. They are in charge of making announcements like who is selling what, who hasn´t paid their PTA dues to the elementary school, and calling lost kids home for dinner. There are about 5 emissoras within earshot of my house and they have a schedule which they sometimes follow, that starts at 5AM. In the mornings they give a news and events report including what groups have meetings that day, deaths, prayer services and soccer scores. Emissoras are also used at all times that the emissora operators are awake to announce phone calls to the public telephone.

This leads me to my meandering point: directions for calling me on the public telephone.
If you're not in Peru call: 051-73-830426. Then speak to Senora Marta, a sister-in-law of the lady I used to live with, and tell her you want to speak with the Senorita Ella or La Gringa. She will ask you to hang up and call back in 10 minutes. Then she will send whatever kid happens to be walking by (because at this moment she is 8 months pregnant) over to Senora Freddis, Queen of the Emissora Operators with a message that I should come to the telephone. Senora Freddis will call me on the emissora and I will trot on over to Marta´s to receive a the call. After the conversation I will be called on to report back to Marta and Freddis on who it was I was talking to, the state of their health, and if this is perchance someone I will someday marry.