In my first few weeks I have learnt to live with smol data in Vanuatu. "Smol" is Bislama for small: say like "waet smol" to your taxi driver. Internet data service here is smol in several ways.

Twice now I have topped up the MIFI card with 1000 vatu, connected to the laptop and lost it all in less than one day. What is that laptop doing gobbling up data bits every time it can? I suspect Google Photos upload and Microsoft updates and other background stuff is chomping it. So I need to manage my online usage and my expectations here in smol data Vanuatu.

First thing to do is cut back all laptop functions that chug away in the background. The simplest way to do this is to set your WiFi network connection as "Metered", and then Microsoft promises to download only critical updates.

Even better is to stop using the laptop and embrace the ipad for everything. Day to day I can get everything done on my iPad mini. Email and browsing is a pleasure. Writing too, and an Apple keyboard makes long assignments efficient and enjoyable. I can process photos using a dongle straight from camera to ipad, and on to reports or social media from there. App updates are much more controllable on the iPad, you can even ignore them till you have a night in Port Vila or somewhere when you can run them all while you sleep.

Another trick is to change browsers. I switched from Google Chrome and Firefox, and now use Opera at work and on my laptop. Opera is a much lighter user of internet resources, so it works well here in smol data land.

Both TVL and Digicel offer data plans but most options are geared for the very short term, like 1 day. I have even seen 3 hourly access plans. The NiVan culture value of "live in the moment" is reflected in their mobile internet plans.

My strategy to live with smol internet in Vanuatu is a combination of

Generally I live much less connected than before. Mail and messages come in batches, and I browse when I can, and just read offline the rest of the time.

My favourite offline apps on my iPad sync up when the wifi works. These are

So, living with smol data here is possible, and even a bit laid back like the rest of the culture. Olgeta hav gudfela dai.