The Only Internet Café in Town

Of all the villages in Senator Ninoy Aquino, only the poblacion is officially classified as urban, but I must say that only recently did it earn the right to be classified as such, when an Internet café opened along one of the main streets. Although the shop has six or seven units only, it is better than having to travel for three hours to the capital town just to open your email.

The Internet café is in a stall owned by the Flauta family. The father was the town mayor, the son is one of the town councilors, and the mother works with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. The local NCIP office is in fact located on the upper floor of the stall. The workstations on the ground floor share space with a “giftshoppe” and a snack bar. If you’re just passing and your eyes don’t catch the small tarpaulin advertising “Meraflor’s Internet Café,” you won’t know that there are computers inside. But because it’s the only Internet café in town, everyone will point or take you to the right place if you ask about it.

More often than not, you have to wait for fifteen minutes to an hour before a station gets vacated. If you have a deadline to beat, don’t wait for the last minute before going to the café. Once in a while, a student or two would peek at your screen while standing behind you. Of course, they’re not really interested in the boring selfies of your Facebook friends; they just have nothing better to do, or they’re subtly telling you to hurry up and leave because they still have to research about something. So please be considerate. Even if you have money to burn, do what you have to do and let others take their turn.