Imagine my excitement the day my father came home with a mobile phone and a sim card. It was a present given to him by a friend who was also a business partner. My brothers helped him to insert the sim in the phone and the first call he made was to that his friend.
His face beamed in excitement.
Many other mobile phone service providers started entering the country ending the mtn monopoly that lasted for almost eight months. Also mobile phones started upgrading and smart phone was introduced into the market. This my hivers was the game changer.
Mobile phones become much more cheaper and accessible including the smart phone. It was no longer a luxury for the rich alone as even a petty trader can get a decent and affordable smart phone to use.
My dad got his first smart phone from my elder brother and he was super excited. He has invested so much in people over the years that at his old age people were suprising him with gifts. That day as he sat comfortably in his favourite wooden chair in our front porch, i showed him the various features in his new smartphone which his other old phone didn't have. He was just screaming and was utterly amazed at all that he can do with it. One thing i love about my father was that he was teachable and a quick learner. He stopped in basic 6 as they called it then and you would never have guessed that he didn't attend high school. Apart from his excellent handwriting, he can read and speak English fluently. What he loved best in his new smart phone was the internet. He was the type that buys newsapaper everyday, listen to 7am news before leaving for work and 9pm news before going to bed. With his new smartphone he started following up on news online 24/7.
His wife, my mother was a different ball game. She was first given a small nokia phone and her excitement lasted for just that day. She only remembers that she has a phone when you ask her about it. Sometimes her phone would stay inside her purse for two days without her bringing it out. I remembered onetime that i was in school and i called her up to ten times without her answering the call. I have to reach her through my father's phone.
My brother later bought a smart phone for her. She was excited again but that was for that day. When we started disturbing her to start using her smart phone she told us boldly not to disturb her life. She chose to use her smartphone to listen to musics only because she made us to download hundreds of christian musics for her. It bacame her favourite phone because of that feature. I got to reach her on her phone easily unlike when she was using nokia 3310.
There were many features in my mother's smart phone but she chose not to go close to them atall. My father on the other hand came back one day asking how he can open a facebook account. He said that while he was in the bank that day he heard some people talking about how they made new friends from Facebook. He ordered me to sit down and explain more about Facebook to him. I used the word ordered because my father's instructions must be obeyed without any argument of any sort.
A month later he asked me to uninstall the app from his phone. I enquired to know if he was no longer enjoying the app and he replied that all his call credit was exhausted and he didn't know making new friends cost money.
It was a hilarious day for i and my brothers.
