Lights out!

Snuffed out

Well, after a few days of pretty good rain, and more expected, it looks like the drought has probably been broken here in Tana. But I’ve been struck again by how, when there is even a hint of rain or one little sneeze of lightning, the electricity supply goes down, and we’re left to enjoy life by candlelight.  The other ironic thing is that "they" (the unnamed, easy to blame powers-that-be) cut off my water supply in the midst of one of the storms a few evenings ago (all that water outside, the dearth of water inside...), leaving me waterless, powerless, desperately in need of a shower and so bored that I ended up taking photos of my solitary candle.

In a country that has its fair share of rain, with several cyclones expected to batter the island most summers, it’s amazing to me how badly prepared it is to handle it – from the electricity, to the water supply, to the stormwater system alongside the roads. 

But there is always something to laugh about or at. Most funny stories I can’t recount here on this blog, because people involved actually read it... But I was just chuckling this morning, on one of my regular trips to the supermarket.. 

In South Africa, at supermarket checkouts one always finds little snacks – chocolates, sweets, cold drink cans, or ice cream cones – just begging to be bought and enjoyed on the ride home. Well, here, with the dairy industry in turmoil, they have a freezer-load of frozen potato chips. Yep, frozen potato chips. I could just imagine the little child eagerly peering over the rim into the ice cream freezer and then excitedly tugging at his mom’s shirt saying, “Oh cool! Mommy, pleeeeeez can we buy a big old bag of frozen chips?” Or not.

Which reminds me of when I was in Mongolia a few years ago and was surprised to see all of the little shops selling ice creams on the sidewalk. There’s nothing unusual about that, I suppose, except that it was -10 degrees Celsius outside. Those Mongolians sure do like their ice cream!