Congrats! Just out of curiosity, what does it cost to have a phone over there? Also, what percentage of the population has a phone??

good questions.

I don't really know. I did pay 120 tala (about 40 bucks) for the actual phone. I think it will be about 30 tala a month if I don't make any long distance calls, which I don't plan to.

The entire country is wired for phone service, but there are not enough lines to go around. Although maybe that is changing.

It used to be that you had to wait months for a line to free up. I waited less than a week. In my training village of Matautu, there were only a handful of phones, maybe 3, amongst 40 or so families. I don't know how representative that is.

Cell phones are popular in Samoa, but expensive. There's one volunteer with a cell phone at the moment. I know many peace corps volunteers around the world have cell phones because they are usually cheap, reliable and sometimes the only service available.

I'm really thrilled to be able to get online from my house and to be able to call a taxi at night (like tonight) after the buses stop running. I feel free.