Power Problems Again

The power cuts have started again. Two weeks ago, it was for 15-30 minutes at a time once or twice a day. Now that the temperature is becoming a serious issue (43 degrees Celsius), the cuts typically last for several hours at a time. When that happened a couple of Saturdays ago at almost noon, we soon found ourselves sitting on the veranda in front of our house with our next door neighbours. It wasn’t any cooler outside than inside, but at least there was a bit of a breeze outside.

After an hour or so, we’d had enough and decided to go to the pool at the local ritzy hotel, the Silmandé. For about $5, you could swim in their nice, large, and clean pool all day long. Add chaise lounges in the shade and cold drinks and who can resist?

There weren’t many people there when we arrived and we had the pool virtually to ourselves. After a couple of laps, it was over to the chaise lounges in the shade of some trees. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the hot breezes to dry us off and heat us up again. So it was back into the pool. Except that after a few rounds of this, we could feel the tingling starting on our shoulders and necks. The entire pool was completely exposed to the sun so it was only a matter of time before we started to burn.

At that point, we discovered an outdoor rinse-off shower near our resting place. So when I began to heat up, I just went and stood under that for a few seconds to cool off.

This solution works on the weekends. But during the week, we can’t just take off for the pool all day. So I hooked up the 5.5 Kw diesel generator we used to use in the village. I don’t have a cement pad poured for it yet, nor a pipe to take the exhaust and noise out over the courtyard wall. But the wiring was put in last year and if we close the doors and windows and turn on the A/C, the noise isn’t too bad. At least we can keep cool in these 40 degree temps.

Now I’m just waiting for the people in the next courtyard over to come and ask if they can run a cord from our generator to their place…