...I don Port enter hot pot ooo. 2.0

...and then I got home, happy that I have successfully Ported, then tried recharging so I could have enough credit to activate my BIS, after all that was my reason for Porting, no luck. The hash key was calling
the recharge code instead of requesting. I tried doing this for some hours without any difference. I then used the alternative recharge measure of calling to follow the voice prompt and I recharged successfully.

Activating BIS was the next challenge. The activation code needs a hash key to request and there was no way around it. To my greatest surprise, I found out that somehow my Ubersocial application works, so, with it, I mentioned @0809ja_support for help and their help came in form of the question, 'kindly confirm if you use a BB Tour phone'. OMG! Antique phone in 2013? I thought that was phased out in 2000? I be Archaeologist? I almost screamed 'hell, no!', but with all the politeness I could summon to answer that question, I simply said 'no' then told them the model of my phone.I waited for more help from them, none came, so I picked up a novel and started reading to calm my already frailing nerves.

Few hours later, I got a message from Etisalat, ' you have used up your monthly data plan. Browsing now costs 5k/kb'. N498 was already deducted from my credit just for tweeting at @0809ja_support! And what monthly data plan have I used up when I haven't even lasted a day with them! My head was spinning. I had the good mind to Port right back to my former Service Provider but no thanks to NCC restriction, I was stuck with the new one for 90 whole days! I almost bursted a blood vessel!

Immediately, I packed my cultured-girl certificate in one corner and started ranting in my direct messages to them, ' return my credit and immediately deactivate that PayG rubbish that I didn't subscribe to', 'if you had the superpowers to activate PayG without my sending a code, why not activate the BIS I have been asking you to help with?', 'is this how you welcome people who just Ported-in to your network?'. I guess they must have run for cover by then, I got no message from them.

I got some more recharge cards for my phone, removed and inserted the SIM card into my old blackberry Bold phone then sent the BIS activation code because I was scared that at the rate Etisalat was going, I could wake up the next day and find all my call credit gone on some PayG rubbish that I wasn't using. My request was successful- my first miracle in two days! I then took the SIM card back to my new phone so that the BIS could be activated there and 'pop' came the message, ' Dear customer, your device cannot be

configured over the air. Please visit our Experience Centre'.

I breathed a sigh of relief. My search for a solution has at least narrowed down to my device. I knew I was on my own on this. With my PC I started surfing the net for the possible issue that Etisalat could have with my device...and EUREKA! That was when I found it. Etisalat network has some age-long 'beef' with Sprint and Verizon branded blackberry phones, BIS-wise, and its BIS is not compliant with Torch 9850, my phone model.

I didn't know when I screamed out on my timeline, ' Etisalat has killed me o. Why didn't you tell me your BIS wasn't compliant with Verizon-branded blackberry phones? You won't believe the 'empathy' and 'consolation' I got from some of my mean followers, ' who send you?', ' LMAO, you don port enter hot pot', 'Gobe!', 'why you no tell dem say na verizon BB u dey use?', 'why u port enter where Saka port from?'. A few of them, like @adetumininu1 , were nice though, and assured me that my credit for the BIS will be refunded since I couldn't use it. But getting it refunded wasn't my biggest problem. How do I go 90days

without internet, my only reason for Porting in the first place? Or should I simply get a new unbranded BB that was Etisalat-friendly? BBs aren't exactly cheap and even if I had so much useless money to waste, which I didn't even have, wouldn't that be Penny-wise, Pound-foolish? Buying a new blackberry phone for at

least N50,000 was way more stupid, annoying and expensive than staying with my old Service Provider for just 10days less BIS duration. I knew my old Service Provider was surely having a field day laughing at my plight. I was in a dilemma and had a whole new respect for how the passengers on the Titanic must have felt when they were told that the ship was sinking in the middle of the high seas.

I planned to go back to the Experience centre the next day to ask Tessy why she didn't tell me my phone model wasn't compliant with their BIS subscription but a still, small voice nudged at me, saying, ' calm down, like the NSCDC Commandant,she may not have even known that fact'. I shouted at the voice to silence it, ' does she have that excuse as an MNP customer care provider?'. I was angry, angry that now I was expected to be rational and fair to someone who has been unfair to me. Slowly, and silently, I freed myself from that vengeful cage and took recourse in prophet Khalil Gibran's advice, ' your freedom when it loses its fetters, becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom' and that was when I got a blackberry miracle! I asked my partner if we could swap phones, he agreed and I got his unbranded BB. Expectedly, it works perfectly with the network!

I then tried to examine my motive for wanting to go back to Tessy. Perhaps, just perhaps, I admitted, I wanted to have a showdown with her, to give her a taste of the bitter pill her lack of information was making me to swallow, and then maybe, mention her and write nasty things about her in my blog to teach her a lesson about being thorough at her job as a service provider. That shocked me a little, because I had always thought me a builder not a destroyer.

Subconsciously, I admitted I wouldn't have been fair to her and I wasn't happy about that. I chose not to join the league of our nation's gossip writers who use their columns and blogs to settle shadow scores and seek vendetta for ghost offences. I've learnt fast enough that it was much better to build than to destroy; to make friends than to make enemies.

Journalism in general and blogging in particular, confers on the writer such immense powers, that, if not properly used could be tremendously abused. It's a very tempting weapon, and could be so easily used to destroy one's self, the same way it can be used to destroy others. The precocious writer or the seasoned-pro blogger who suffers from delusions of grandeur could see his/her calling as an opportunity to 'diss' and 'deal' with anyone who steps on his/her toes; who refuses to acknowledge his/her existence and anyone whose face he/she detests. We all have to strive to rise above petty vengeance.It's not enough to proclaim to the world that you are a credible, objective, bias-free writer or that you don't practice yellow journalism when your write-ups portray otherwise. Besides when I look around me, the most famous writers I see are not those who sought to bring others down ; it's those who sought to build others up.

Need I tell you about Etisalat's download speed? It's out of this world, at least where I live. I got a tweet from them a day after my message to them, apologizing for the late response I got and that my PayG has been deactivated. I got another call to formally welcome me to their network just yesterday and yes, I have Ported, not into a hot pot but IN to Etisalat and I have been downloading without fear of using up some limited Mb and, hopefully, happily-ever-after.