Electricity
Well as I write this I am sitting by candle light with the power being out in the whole of the North since midday. Apparently this is quite common in the run up to the rainy season as the water in the turbines is very low so they have to share the power.
Of course my own little house is a story of its own when it comes to power. I am quite used to the power crashing in the middle of the night as I wake up in a hot sweat and realise that the fan has gone off. Usually it comes back on a few hours later. However the other day it still wasn’t back in the morning. Thought nothing more of it until I realised that everyone else still had power – but not for long. The whole area went out for the rest of the day. Different lines kept coming and going and we were told that my line would be the last but definitely back by 6. It is of course dark by 6 and it was easy to tell that the rest of my line did indeed get their power back at 6 but not me. After a bit of an investigation I realised that the main on/off switch for the house had jumped to off all by itself! Turns out I could have had power on off for the whole day just like everyone else! As a bonus however, my freezer managed to defrost itself entirely which was probably long overdue! The problem still isn’t fixed as it now sporadically decides to jump off on a regular basis. Its quite scary when suddenly you are in total pitch blackness. On a plus note if the power is off during the early dark hours and you decide to go to bed at 7 (there is really nothing else to do with no light) you can tell when it goes back on due to all the cheers around the area!
Was actually up 3 times last night as the power was out and the sweat dripping was awful!!!
With the approach of the rainy season has also brought many new and exciting wildlife into my little sanctuary. There are these awful spider/scorpion things that come out at night and run like mad. They are huge and really quick and scary looking with their big long pincers feeling the way. Apparently they aren’t poisonous but can give you a nasty bite. I originally got my cat to scare away the mice etc but the little bugger has taken to catching these spider things outside and bringing them into the house to play with and slowly kill them to eat. Meanwhile they are running all about the place. I have been known to jump onto the couch in order to avoid them! Yesterday after bringing in 3 of the creatures I threw him out and shut the door. Thinking I was safe from interruption I began to read a book while Jonathan was cooking tea (yes I have him well trained). Suddenly there was this high pitched continual squeaking noise. I didn’t need to look up to realise that Jambo had now bought in a furry mouse through the window. I was straight up on the chair for the fourth time that night. Jonathan went to investigate as Jambo and friend scurried into the spare room and under the bed. I alerted George my watchman and hid outside while he and Jonathan managed to chase Jambo outside to finish off the mouse. This time I closed all the windows as I didn’t want a nice present on my pillow!
There is a major virus spreading about Malawi at the moment – don’t worry humans can’t get it as it’s a technology thing. Flash drives are picking up viruses and because the technology is quite slow here then the virus is spreading really quickly. Both my pen drives are a bit dodgy as is my laptop and the work one. Think that pretty soon everything is going to just stop working (a bit like my fan as it is on 24/7). I’m just trying to keep backing up all my photos etc and hope for the best! Not a lot I can do especially as the virus seems to attack the anti-virus soft-ware first!
Oh well, it is Malawi after all!
Of course my own little house is a story of its own when it comes to power. I am quite used to the power crashing in the middle of the night as I wake up in a hot sweat and realise that the fan has gone off. Usually it comes back on a few hours later. However the other day it still wasn’t back in the morning. Thought nothing more of it until I realised that everyone else still had power – but not for long. The whole area went out for the rest of the day. Different lines kept coming and going and we were told that my line would be the last but definitely back by 6. It is of course dark by 6 and it was easy to tell that the rest of my line did indeed get their power back at 6 but not me. After a bit of an investigation I realised that the main on/off switch for the house had jumped to off all by itself! Turns out I could have had power on off for the whole day just like everyone else! As a bonus however, my freezer managed to defrost itself entirely which was probably long overdue! The problem still isn’t fixed as it now sporadically decides to jump off on a regular basis. Its quite scary when suddenly you are in total pitch blackness. On a plus note if the power is off during the early dark hours and you decide to go to bed at 7 (there is really nothing else to do with no light) you can tell when it goes back on due to all the cheers around the area!
Was actually up 3 times last night as the power was out and the sweat dripping was awful!!!
With the approach of the rainy season has also brought many new and exciting wildlife into my little sanctuary. There are these awful spider/scorpion things that come out at night and run like mad. They are huge and really quick and scary looking with their big long pincers feeling the way. Apparently they aren’t poisonous but can give you a nasty bite. I originally got my cat to scare away the mice etc but the little bugger has taken to catching these spider things outside and bringing them into the house to play with and slowly kill them to eat. Meanwhile they are running all about the place. I have been known to jump onto the couch in order to avoid them! Yesterday after bringing in 3 of the creatures I threw him out and shut the door. Thinking I was safe from interruption I began to read a book while Jonathan was cooking tea (yes I have him well trained). Suddenly there was this high pitched continual squeaking noise. I didn’t need to look up to realise that Jambo had now bought in a furry mouse through the window. I was straight up on the chair for the fourth time that night. Jonathan went to investigate as Jambo and friend scurried into the spare room and under the bed. I alerted George my watchman and hid outside while he and Jonathan managed to chase Jambo outside to finish off the mouse. This time I closed all the windows as I didn’t want a nice present on my pillow!
There is a major virus spreading about Malawi at the moment – don’t worry humans can’t get it as it’s a technology thing. Flash drives are picking up viruses and because the technology is quite slow here then the virus is spreading really quickly. Both my pen drives are a bit dodgy as is my laptop and the work one. Think that pretty soon everything is going to just stop working (a bit like my fan as it is on 24/7). I’m just trying to keep backing up all my photos etc and hope for the best! Not a lot I can do especially as the virus seems to attack the anti-virus soft-ware first!
Oh well, it is Malawi after all!
posted by Caroline Pitcairn at
5:41 pm
1 Comments:
yikes those scorpion type things sound scary! no wonder you're up on the sofa a lot! ;)
very cold here now caz, my heating is rationed cos we have those pants gas canisters which cost and arm and a leg lol we even had a flutter of snow the other day!
The run up to Christmas is mental at school, I come home singing the Cristmas Carols lol and you cant mention the C word to the kids for fear of meltdown as their bp rises phenomally!
Take care, Suze xxx
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