Monkey Mailman: Not an Option

How do Pete and I stay in touch while he is abroad? Several of you lovely readers recently asked me about my long-distance communication situation, so this is my Peace-Corps-themed transition off of PCV Challenge blogging...

So. There were a lot of jokes prior to Pete's departure about staying in touch via smoke signals and a monkey butler that would run our mail. Some days, I think training a monkey mailman would be the easy option. Overall though, Pete and I stay very in touch considering he lives 3,000 miles away in a town that frequently loses its electricity.

Here are the methods:

VIDEO CHAT: We had a test phase right after Pete's departure - Google-video-chat or Skype? Google wins. He still lives in a third world country, so inevitably, during an hour long conversation, the call will be dropped multiple times, and the quality ranges anywhere from horrible and excellent.

Pete does not have internet access with his host family, so instead heads to the local ciber where he pays for hour-long sessions. This is when we talk, and also where Pete copies and pastes my emails into a Word doc, to be read later.

TEXTING: I can receive texts from Pete. But, for whatever strange Nica-communication-vortex reason, Pete cannot receive texts from me. So, I happily read texts ranging in content from I-just-saw-a-tarantula to I-ate-rice-and-beans-yet-again. He just doesn't get a reply.

Also, since we suspect his Claro-brand cell phone was built in the nineteenth century, Pete can't churn out texts like your average American with an iPhone. I get anywhere from zero to three texts day - which might seem like a lot, until you realize that my best friend and I can go on a 25-text streak about Lady Gaga.

GOOGLE VOICE: I can call Pete on his cell phone for the mere cost of $0.22/minute. This sounds cheap, but adds up quickly, so it's for the occasional, particularly exciting update. Peter can call me back on my phone, but only during the hour-per-day he has internet access at the ciber.

SNAIL MAIL: The classic option, and perhaps my favorite. Because letters are so rare, they are that much more exciting. It takes a letter from Pete about one month to travel from his town in Nicaragua to my Lincoln Park apartment. For whatever reason, my letters only take two weeks to get to him. Chalk it up to the efficiency of the US postal service.

I have been a fan of snail mail since elementary school when I wrote letters to my cousins and my grandparents. This continued through middle and high school, when Stephanie and I sent each other letters, despite the fact that we lived in the same hometown - excellent practice for her departure to Mongolia. Now, with two friends abroad, I have ample targets for my snail-mail obsession.

CONCLUSION: Pete is in the Peace Corps. We don't get to always talk as much as we'd like, and there can be days-long communication gaps. In all though, Pete still gets to hear way too much about the chick lit I'm reading, my trips to the dry cleaners and my thoughts on the latest celebrity gossip.

Well, that's it, readers - and of course, there is the approaching visit. 72 days and counting!