Keeping in touch while living in Ethiopia

Calling back home is not very expensive. It's actually cheaper than my home country. The only problem here is inconsistency. There are times when phones are blocked by officials and you can't call outside Ethiopia neither can you text. They will also block Internet aswell so communication becomes tricky. That has happened 3 times from the time I came to Ethiopia in May. The first time I remember exams in schools where taking place and the reason I hear they block all phone networks was because the last time they had exams there was alot of leakages being sent out using whatsapp. Hence Internet being blocked for the whole period of the exam. Now you can imagine how inconveniencing that is. Then also, you could send a txt message and be charged but it would not reach its intended destination.