Tigo Land

1/30/2008

Tigo is taking over Cabricán.

In Guatemala, there are three main telephone companies, Moviestar, Claro and Tigo. During the presidential elections there was a joke that whichever candidate you were against: tiene que ser un movie star, porque no habla claro ni esta contigo (translated: has to be a movie star because he doesn’t talk clearly and isn’t with you). This of course was a play off of the slogans of Claro (habla claro: speak clearly – i.e. you always have a good signal, or: talk Claro) and Tigo (Cabricán* está ConTigo: Cabricán is with you, or, it’s double meaning: Cabricán is with Tigo).

*Substitute current location for Cabricán… you get the picture.

Actively engaged in price wars (since arriving in Guatemala, Tigo has begun offering triple minute days) and always searching for free advertisement, all three companies offer free paint jobs for everyone. The catch of course, is that your free paint job is in the selected company’s colors, complete with their logo.

Within the past week Tigo has begun painting over Cabricán. So for example, CabriPan, the bakery down the street (pan means bread) now exclaims in dook blue and white: CabriPan está con Tigo. Every street I walk down has at least three new stores, walls or houses painted over with the Tigo insignia. Inexplicably, Tigo has also been able to convince the municipality to paint the entire soccer stadium Tigo. (Yes, we have a soccer stadium. We might provide the worst education in all of Guatemala and leave several outlying communities and schools without running water, but we can afford to spend millions of Quetzales building a new giant stadium).

I can only assume Cabricán is about to be renamed Tigo, or this is some perverse practical joke where someone wants me to live in a sea of dook blue for the next year and half.
On a side note: UNC vs. dook
Wednesday, February 6, 2008

I’m a Tar Heel born and a Tar Heel bred and when I die I’m a Tar Heel Dead! Rah rah Carolina-lina! Rah rah Carolina-lina! Rah rah Carolina-lina! GO TO HELL DOOK!