After having been on Djerba for a couple of days, I couldn’t help myself but notice how locals use the countries two GSM networks. Yesterday evening, I strolled down a busy road and noted once more the influence France had and has on the country. One sign of this is not only the use of French as academic language but also the fact that about eight out of ten cars are French made. Many people working in one of the many hotels here seem to have their own cars to come and go to work. Others are taking the bus and one can observe that writing SMS messages is just about as common place here as in any European country. Many locals also use their phone to make and receive phone calls. So it seems that the price per minute for a phone call and the price for an SMS is in a reasonable balance with their income. Working in the tourist industry, however, probably means making more money than with a traditional job. Therefore its likely that these observations can not be applied to the country as a whole.
Mobile phones strangely enough are mostly from Nokia and not from French companies. In general, people use simple and somewhat older models without built in camera.
For once I didn’t have my camera phone ready when I saw a man riding on a camel and using his mobile phone. It would have made a good picture for this blog entry.