BERRIEN SPRINGS—Four years after its establishment, pests continue to plague the tranquil environment of the sprawling Berrien Springs Internet Café. Patrons who frequent this exclusive club constantly find themselves interrupted by soapbox speakers who yammer away at random topics ranging from biblical exegesis to sanctuary doctrines.
“I come here during the day, often when it’s hot, just to relax and browse the web,” said Duncan Jones, a longtime patron of the Internet Café who has been baffled by the instructive intrusions. “At a membership cost of $2500 every four months, you’d think you’d get some peace. It should be quiet in here, with everybody minding their own business. But these soapbox didactics change the dynamic. They demand our attention and pull up these PowerPoint presentations which they expect us to follow as if we were in some kind of lecture.”
The speakers often carry on about their subjects for fifty minutes or more. The more daring ones even try to engage patrons by asking questions or demanding that they break into discussion groups to debate the latest topics. Some even continue their discourses for two to three hours, assuming that patrons are obliged to pay attention to their latest musings on the role of the scapegoat in the sanctuary or missiological ethics.
“I just don’t see why they feel the need to do that,” Matt Sabre, another frustrated customer, complained. “I come here to keep track of my fantasy team or to follow sports games, not to listen to these know-it-alls. I wish they would just leave us alone.”
But Sabre acknowledges begrudging toleration of a problem that does not look like it will go away anytime soon.
“From time to time, I lift my head up, make eye contact, and nod, just to humor them. And we do let the speakers interrupt us occasionally, since some of them are actually entertaining, especially the foreign ones.”
A few patrons pay constant attention to the muttering mendicants, although they are in the minority. Nduse Mchewa is a student who not only tolerates, but enjoys their presence.
“It’s like I’m getting a free, bonus education while I’m here,” Mchewa said. “We certainly don’t have internet café’s like this back home. I sit in the very front, as close to them as I can, and try to soak it all in. Besides, the African countries are out of the World Cup anyway, so I don’t have any games to watch.”
The Berrien Springs Internet Café boasts multiple meeting rooms, each offering unlimited Wi-Fi connectivity to the Internet. Patrons trend toward the larger room downstairs, which seats upwards of 100, and offers multiple outlets at each table, unlike the smaller rooms, which force patrons to fight for prized power outlets along the wall.
“I always try reserve browsing sessions in room N-150,” said Jason Benaras, who has been a patron of the Internet Café for the past two years. “Because of its size, you can sit far away from any soapbox yammerer, and tune him or her out. But those seats at the back are highly coveted, and there’s always competition to get to them. I keep praying that one day I won’t have to worry about trying to acquire a choice spot, that I’ll be able to surf the net in any room in the Internet Café in peace and privacy, without interruptions.”
Until then, Benaras and his fellow patrons can only hope for interruptions in the soapbox speakers’ schedules.
