Nomad No More

You want to call me about getting me a phone?

To settle into a city, you just lease an apartment and change your driver’s license, right?  Well, it is not so simple if a) you’re a nomad with no permanent address; b) your most recent permanent address was in a different country; and c) there’s a pandemic.  Here are some of my amusing obstacles to becoming a documented member of structured society again.

First up – getting a cellphone number

On my travels I figured out all of the apps – WhatsApp, FaceTime, Skype, Duo, Zoom, Messenger, etc.  And I was pleasantly surprised in foreign countries at how easy, normal, and inexpensive it was to get a SIM card for my phone that provided a decent amount of data, and in some cases, a temporary phone number.  So I was disheartened to be reminded of how expensive cellular service is in North America.  I was also grieving the pending release of the Verizon phone number I’d had for almost two decades.  (Was I actually worried that I would lose connections and part of my identity, by losing my phone number?)

A new SIM card was partly a security issue (if WiFi dropped in an emergency, I could still get help) and partly a “doing business” issue (expecting a lot of calls ahead that would involve people calling me back.)

Simple to get a SIM card, right?  Well….

  • Stores were closed.  
    • Okay, I’ll set up an account online.
  • Once I had picked a number and a plan, the representative in the online chat box typed, “Kindly provide a preferred number to reach you regarding the order.”  
    • Ummm, the whole point here is to get a number.
  • He suggested “any of your family member numbers to reach you?”  
    • Ummm, none of my family is nearby, and even if they were, I couldn’t visit them to borrow their phone – because we have stay-at-home orders.
  • I suggested they could reach me via WhatsApp.  
    • He didn’t have an answer for that.
  • I suggested that I call them from Skype “regarding the order.”  
    • He thought that might work, and gave me the 877 number and my reference account number.
  • I reached a verifier, who asked for my last Canadian address.  
    • Ummm, that was 19 years ago, and I wasn’t able to fully pull that one out of the brain archives.  (Note, that since then I have compiled and stored all of my former addresses and phone numbers!)
  • The verifier asked about my last employment in Canada. 
    • No problem! And we were on a roll from there.
  • My representative in the chat box had dutifully waited to hear back from me.
    • With whatever the verifier had done in my file, he was able to send me a “Congratulations!” chat message.
  • Then he wanted to know where to send the SIM card….
    • I was in an AirBnB with a locked mailbox.
    • Here is where it was helpful to have a friend agree to accept delivery at her house, and then we arranged a drop-off.

After a few days, I was happily up and running with full communication – and I was successfully over the first hurdle toward rejoining structured society!