Disconnected: Tales of Overcoming Network Struggles

I stood under a tree where the network used to be slightly better so I could at least communicate with my husband and my kids after 34 hours of communication gap, but still, I couldn't succeed. Then I had to climb on top of something that looks like a mini mountain in search of this network before I got things sorted out.

There are lots of instances when the network has let me down, and I keep wishing that network issues never existed in our world. One of those instances was my experience some time ago when I traveled to my hometown for my youngest sister's traditional marriage. I traveled alone, leaving my husband and my kids behind in Lagos City. Since I was a teenager, I have known that my community suffers network issues; it's not always bad each day, but most days it is. I have thought that by now, where the world kept going digital, at least the government would fix things, but sadly we are still far from reality.

It was a painful experience not to communicate with my family after leaving them for such travel. I had planned to share every bit of the event about the traditional marriage ceremony of my sister, like connect them live and send pictures as the program was going on, but I was disappointed to the point that I couldn't even communicate with them at ease, not to talk of having an Internet connection. The event was so beautiful, rooted in culture, and I just wanted my kids to practically experience traditional marriage in our hometown virtually, but the network said no. I had to borrow a phone from someone with an Airtel network throughout my little stay so I could at least communicate as supposed.

Now that I traveled home again, I came prepared with three different network providers to avoid cutting off from the Internet world or being unable to communicate with my loved ones.

I also had a frustrating network issue recently in Lagos City during an important moment. I went to the Lagos State Material Testing Laboratory for testing purposes, and since it's a government establishment, I needed to make transactions through the government account and via my ATM card instead of a transfer. It's just one of their rules. Locating this venue took a lot of money from me as I didn't know the route. I had to use an Uber rider who charged me #20,000. I didn't want anything to bring me back to the same office, but network dealt with me. How the network left my phone, my bank app just when I needed to do the transaction was strange. I was in the office trying everything until work closing hour. Then I thought of taking a risk; I met someone whom I felt was kind enough and pleaded with him to assist me with the transaction the following day while I transferred money to him. I would say I am lucky because the man did so diligently and forwarded all the receipts of payment via my email.

These are the two major instances I can recall now, when the network lets me down but good enough, I am able to handle it with lessons learned.

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