Flavor of the Month: Lack of Wifi
When I was in Taiwan, I'd sit at a coffee shop and never worry that the person on the other side of my screen would have trouble hearing me. Despite the hissing of the wand on the coffee machine, or the clinking of glasses, the sound and the signal always came through.
In Athens, I had a long phone conversation over WhatsApp call at a public plaza. I cried, I laughed, I shared details of my trip. I even switched to video for a little bit.
On public wifi.
Laos was the kind of place that forced you to pull away from virtual reality. It shook you by the shoulders and said "just be present!" while the monks chanted in their temple and the river shushed everyone to sleep.
But Medellin? Medellin is killing me slowly.
Because, the thing is, Medellin won't make up its mind. it's not asking you to just be present and enjoy the pollution. It's a city full of "verracos" who are entrepreneurial and trying to make shit happen and oops, I ran out of data and I can't call an Uber without wifi.
Wifi in Medellin
The fact that Medellin has public wifi in the first place is a big deal, I'll give it that.
When you get onto public wifi on the metro, or at a main square Medellin public wifi now asks you to log in. To give your name, your email, it asks you a few questions about what you use wifi for. I, sincerely, say "social media."
Because it's true. I use public wifi to WhatsApp my friends about where the fuck they are, and why the fuck they're late. (But don't ask me about my punctuality lately, I'm off my game).
But, I wish I'd been brutally honest and asked for what I really need. I need some wifi that I can work on. Une and Directv have let me down lately. I'll tell you why.
When I asked Une to remove a service from an apartment, they waited until after the cutoff date to call me back, and said they'd take another month to actually remove the service and so I'd have to pay one more on top of that.
Gee, thanks.
After Directv "installed Wifi" at my new place on a Saturday, they took four more days to even call me and say " oh yeah, it's not working let us send someone over."
FOUR DAYS.
And this is all after I'd been struggling with .78 Mbps of the promised 5 Mbps wifi at my old place after 8 p.m.
Why, Colombia, why?
The Struggle
See, I don't have a huge issue with being the girl LOUDLY speaking into her computer next to you at a coffee shop because it pays my bills.
So, #SorryNotSorry
However, for a 7 a.m. or a 9 p.m. class, things get a little more complicated. Though, usually for an 8 a.m. class I'll be all alone on the Starbucks balcony, (best wifi in Laureles, come at me bro) at 5 p.m. on a holiday, the wifi comes down to 1.5 Mbps and I'm fucked.
Royally.
So I've made the bare minimum amount of money I need for weeks waiting for this new apartment to magically solve all my problems and surprise surprise, it hasn't.
This isn't a jab at Colombians, because at the end of the day, I'm still Colombian.
It's a jab at this ridiculous notion that Medellin is the most innovative city in the world because I can WhatsApp my friends from Parque Poblado saying "be here in 5 or I'm leaving" (kidding, I'm not that mean).
Medellin has changed the lives of thousands with innovative social projects. Its Library Parks are game changers, its escalators in Comuna 13 move mentalities as much as they move people.
But dear God, when will Medellin realize that it has so much potential for Digital Nomads, if only they'd step up their wifi game?
Dear Colombia
"Decent wifi" won't cut it anymore. Please be better.
Love,
Ximena.
