Hope you are doing well. Term 3 started yesterday so I thought I'd take time to write a blog before I start driving all over the place and visiting schools again.
We adjusted easily to Zambia again after our vacation to B.C. and Alberta for Michael and Emily's wedding. Kate had a bit of anxiety over being by herself in our large house but it is getting better again.
We've been back in Choma just over a month and I've already watched 2 seasons (yep, seasons, not just discs) of Glee and read 5.5 books. There really is not much to do in the evenings.
Another adjustment has been "load shedding" in Zambia. It began a bit before we left but when we came back in August there was a consistent schedule where we could expect the power to be off for 5 hours a day. A couple weeks ago the schedule was all over the place and one Wednesday we had the power off for a total of 12 hours during 3 times in the day. That week, we now know, was ZESCO (the power company), switching us to a new schedule. It has been more scheduled again but we are now up to 8 hours a day of power outages. Lusaka is worse. They have 11-12 hours of power outages per day (scheduled). However, even today (Tuesday) we have had 2 outages that were not expected.
Our schedule right now is as follows: (in 24 hour time)
Mondays: 6:00-14:00
Tuesdays: 22:00-6:00
Wednesdays: 14:00-22:00
Thursdays: 6:00-14:00
Fridays: 22:00 - 6:00
Saturdays: 14:00 - 22:00
Sundays: 6:00 - 14:00
We are learning to be flexible. (I love having planned outages - I can plan! It's the surprise ones that I need to roll with more).
I am so sad that Weds. evenings the power is off and I'm working at finding a way to run my computer for a couple hours so I can have internet and join my Bible study group again. Our free internet doesn't work without ZESCO but I can use a dongle and get internet through the cell towers. It just costs more. Plus my computer battery only lasts about 15 minutes, so we have purchased a back-UPS power supply to try out. It managed to run my computer for about an hour on Thursday when the power was off. I'm hoping it just needs more charging as it was still fairly new.
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| Back-UPS |
We have a few solar lights and candles that we use when the sun goes down and it gets dark (around 6pm usually). Andrew tried making a solar stove yesterday with some success. He got water in a pot quite hot! We also have a charcoal stove, but mostly we just eat something we don't have to cook! Much easier.
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| Solar and battery lights |
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| solar battery. we just found this so Andrew's trying to get it working |
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| the two parts of the solar stove |
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| solar stove |
But other rumours floating around (besides just low water levels at the Kariba dam) include: 1) the Kariba Dam needs to be fixed as it has not been maintained (and therefore early rains will not be the solution). 2) ZESCO is load shedding so there will be less riots when they have to completely turn off power to fix the dam (getting us used to no power) 3) make your own up - I've probably heard it!
Along with the power shortages there are water issues. I'm pretty sure the water levels are lower this year however the Choma dam (where our town gets its water) still looks okay. So, I'm not sure if it's low water levels (The rains stopped in March this year with a couple big surprise storms in May) or if it's a power problem (not being able to pump so much water. We are finding out that the nice thing about our property flooding so badly in rainy season is that we must be one of the lowest points in Choma and therefore we have water longer than our neighbours do. we have no storage tank so we are depending on the town water supply. To give you an idea our water bill has dropped to about 1/3 of the price it used to be. The water is coming out of our taps at 1/3rd of the pressure. It's getting hard to shower! Even our hot water tank doesn't help since it's pressurized, meaning it doesn't let water out unless it's coming in. Probably a good thing for preventing fires though!
So pray for Zambia. The Kwacha (local currency) is devaluing fast. Businesses and mining companies are struggling due to power issues. Charcoal prices are going up because even those with power now have to use it to cook. Those that are just making ends meet, who always use charcoal because they live in a compound with no power, are finding their small bits of money aren't stretching as far. Zambia is expecting less rain this year too due to El Nino. http://www.postzambia.com/news.php?id=11170 (Lake Kariba is in Southern Zambia). I am expecting diesel prices to rise and perhaps even shortages. Gas (for gas stoves) is already hard to find.
Pray for the Zambian People. Those who depend on ZESCO need to find alternatives. Those who have never had power and don't miss it will struggle with rising prices of charcoal and low water issues. Where Andrew works: Chodort: the production crew are working during the power on hours which means a whole new schedule to adapt to. They will have to figure it out again if outages become worse.
Pray for us, that we can be flexible. I bought out the Didsbury Dollar Store of all their glow in the dark bracelets while we were back. Best investment ever when I want to bribe the kids to stay in bed when the power is off!
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