The international calling card business makes a killing by charging ridiculously high prices, adding on service fees, and providing a service that only works 30% of the time or so. Diene and I were buying $5 cards (+$1 service fee) and he would get to talk to his family for about 10 minutes. Ridiculous! Thanks to my public bemoaning about this, many friends recommended Skype. The problem, I thought, was that Diene’s family doesn’t have the internet – but lo and behold – we can call any phone using Skype. I realize that I am a few years late on this trend, but I am still grateful to have found it.

The calling rate $0.26/minute is still significant, but the connection works and there are no hidden fees. That alone is worth the money! For our first call, we both sat at my desk in my tiny office, talking into my computer and listening to his family on the other end of the line (and ocean). Another miracle of the internet!

Today, I am grateful for Skype.