PARANAS, Samar- In the village of Tenani, more than 10 kilometers from Buray junction this town, almost all houses have put up bamboo poles measuring of more than 10 meters high.
And at the tip of each bamboo pole is a plastic bottled container with a modem of a Wifi gadget.
“That’s for using messenger and Facebook. We have cellphones here but you can’t call or message us. But you can contact us through messenger and Facebook,”Sherly Villamor, a mother of five children, said, referring to the use of the bamboo poles that the villagers have erected.
Villamor said that they have to have internet access as the Department of Education is to implement online classes amid the pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) this school year.
But there is no mobile signal in their village which is located in between mountains along the Buray-Taft road.
Thus, the residents of the village find ways to catch mobile signal and putting up bamboo poles with Wifi modems attached on the poles was their solution on their problem.
Although they have now access to internet, this is only through Facebook and messenger and they can only read the message during night time.
“Usually, around 8 pm we can already access on Facebook and messenger but if we wanted to have a video call, we have wait until 2 am when the signal is stronger,” Villamor said.
Her five children are all studying but only three, who are in high school, are using the Wifi connection.
”They’re not supposed to sleep late because one of the requirements for us who are 4Ps members is to let our school children have enough sleep, but sometimes we allow them especially if they are doing their modules and activity sheets because they need to talk to their classmates,” she added.
Having a good communication signal is very important to their village, shares another resident, Eugene Igdalino, the president of Torpedo, an extreme river cruise adventure along the 10 kilometers portion of the 100 kilometers along Ulot River, the longest river in the region.
Tenani is known for the Ulot Torpedo Extreme Boat Ride, an extreme water adventure for tourists.
With the present problem on COVID-19, and their reopening to tourists, Igdalino said that better signal is important to them for tourists to easily contact them as reservation is mandatory to observe physical distancing.
“Right now, tourists may do reservation by sending us message on our Facebook Page. If only the signal here is stable, it is better for our tourism enterprise,”he said.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
