Power Outages

Power outages are a subject that, while not absolutely riveting, deserve a little more attention because they're such a part of daily life.

First let me say that they aren't the typical type of outage caused by a big storm or freak accident. Whatever your explanation for it (grid over-extension, not enough power to go around, etc.), the government/power company (who are co-mingled) has to cut the power. There isn't an actual "schedule" or anything - the power just goes out... and then eventually (so far every time) comes back on. Sometimes it goes out for a few hours, sometimes for more than just a few hours. It's different in different areas but recently Alyssa (who's 50km away) and I have been having the same outages which leads me to believe a huge chunk of the country doesn't have power at the same time. Over the past few days we've been loosing power between about 11am-2pm then again from 7:30pm-10:30pm. My host family said that the power had been cutting almost everyday like that for a while. The power cut this morning at 5am and didn't come back until 2:30pm. It actually just cut again while I was blogging (3:45pm) so we'll see when it comes back this time.

I would say the worst part about the power cutting is that about 45 minutes after the power has cut - the water stops being able to be pumped and it cuts. I've been pretty diligent about keeping my water filter filled and my host family keeps about 100 liters of water for cleaning/washing... it's still just frustrating to not have running water to say.. wash your hands.

Now I understand that there are many volunteers that don't have any electricity or running water but this is just another description of my little slice of Africa.