As a child I spent most of my time living in the Southwest. Our family would take visitors to the most Southwestern thing we could, old west town. As I walked through the long dirt road flanked by old west buildings, I remember wishing to see these places alive. I remember straining my imagination to recreate a typical day in town. Imagining it not as a historical playground, but as a functional space. Why did people enter this building for? Did they wear pistols inside? Where did they tie their horses?
Several years later I am in Chencha, which is literally at the end of the road. Type Chencha Ethiopia into Google maps to see what I mean by the end of the road.
While walking into town, I look around and I am flanked by old cinderblock buildings separated by a muddy dirt road. Could it be that my childhood wishes came true and I am now in the closes living analogy to an old west town? Goats are being herded down the dirt road, kids roam freely, most people are using their feet for transportation, something broken lays in the road waiting to be used for scrap parts or burned for fun, a shack that could most accurately be translated as a saloon hosts dozens of men drunk from home brewed honey wine at 10 in the morning. The function of the each space is clearly seen through its design. As I am trying to open my eyes even wider to take in everything that is happening, a man approaches me with a modern device clutched in this hand. I look at his face for intentions, is he threatening or ready to try some con? He is holding a mobile phone and from what I gathered from language and hand gestures he wanted me to use it. He then places his mobile phone against my ear and holds it as I hear a voice mail message “I am not here right now, leave a message. Beep.”. "Its voicemail," I explain to a blank face. Time is running out so I leave the best message I could, “I am a tourist in Chencha and I guy approached me on the road to leave a message, I guess, ok call him back.” I nod indicating that I am done with the call. He then asks me what is going on. From what I understand, he recognizes the man’s voice on the other line, but the man does not respond.
I think for a moment as to what could have been going on. Does he expect a response from a voice mail? Does he mean he needs a return call? Suddenly experience I have been having and this experience comes together to form a new realization. All the while I have been in East Africa, people have been struggling to answer the phone even when the time is inappropriate (in American standards). People have answered the phone in several cases: mid conversation, while being introduced during a semi formal event and even while giving a professional back message. Finally, I understand it here, at the end of the road. People in East Africa do not have voice mail! If someone calls, just like in the days before answering machines, people struggle to take the call. Do you remember running into your house in the 80s, to catch the phone? Also, if they hear a voice mail, they probably do not know what to do. Remember the explicit instructions we used to give when answering machines were new? “Please leave your name, time you called, ect.” I write "used to give", but people are still leaving these instructions twenty years after the advent of answering machines. Who do they think is calling?, someone from East Africa?
So here I am on this dirt road doing my best to be helpful. I must explain two things timezones and voicemails. First I explain that although it is 10 AM here, it is around 2 AM in the United States. So, he should consider the time difference when calling. He thought I was joking and I don’t think that he bought the whole timezone thing. Then I explain the voicemail. “When you hear a beep, leave a message that includes your number and your request, just like you would write in a letter.” He then asks me why the man is not calling him back, and I have to explain a third thing, that caller ID is usually not transmitted via transnational phone lines. Three big ideas for a small town on the end of the road.
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