"Hmmm," I think to myself, sitting at the dining room table working on grades. "The descriptions are good but he forgot some dates. Let's see, that's a....."
Darkness abruptly descends.
":One," I think. "Two, three." I should be thinking in French but I'm kinda' annoyed. This happens like every night. "Four, Five, Six."
"RRrrrrrrrrr," the generator tries to start but fails.
I sit in the dark, waiting and wondering. This is the first time the generator hasn't started right up.
I start counting again. "One, Two..."
"RRrrrrrr. VrooommmmMMMMMMMMM!!!!!" The generator kicks in, the lights flair on and I go back to work, knowing many people in Dakar are now in the dark, listening to the sound of our generator and seeing the bright lights in our house. Maybe this is why we have a guard?
So very often the power goes out. They tell me that as the weather cools, it won't happen as often but the leaves are starting to turn colors in New England and Mom has already driven south for the winter.
Oh, and the city has no water. Again. We had no water for 3 days last weekend. Then, it went out again yesterday. They had enough water at school to get through the school day but if there's no water by tomorrow, there won't be any school. We have some water in a cistern on the roof which lets us flush the toilets and clean the dishes but that will only last for a few days.
Well, as they say, TIA. This is Africa.
No school because of no water, now that's a new one. We recently had a condensation day, the weather changed so abruptly that water condensed on the floors and walls in many Amherst schools, there were several accidents and school closed the next day until they could dry out. Too much water, go figure. Keep writing!
ReplyDeleteI'll tell the teachers at school about that! It's a funny comparison.
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