Phone Lottery

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The best part about using the phones here in Tanzania is every time I put more credit on my phone it feels like I am playing the lottery.

You see the phones here work much different from the phones in North America. If I want to call someone I must have Tanzanian Shiling credit, if I want to send an SMS (that’s what the rest of the world calls a text) I must have credit. However if I don’t want to spend credit to talk to someone I can do what we call, flash someone (and no it's not what North America things of as flashing). Flashing is where I call them and hang up before they answer. They see I have called and call me back and end up paying for the phone call- it’s kinda like calling home collect. If I don’t have any credit I can still take phone calls, just not make them. If I am talking on the phone and I run out of credit, to bad for me.

When that happens I get to “play the lottery”. When I buy credit they give you a little card and on the back you must scratch off the silver and type in the code for your credit to be activated.

I love it. Each time I play, I win! I always break even and I always am left feeling that it was a good day to play.

Let me know if you want to play the lottery. You can, and I’m sure you’ll win too.

500tsh is $.32

1,000tsh is $.63

5,000tsh is $3.15

Here’s to the Tanzanian Phone Lottery!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Who but you would think of a phone card as always winning the lottery. Sonya you are something else-adn that's what I love about you.
Are the calls you were referring to within the country or world-wide?
Marilee
March 13, 2012 at 4:57 PM
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