We Have Power

It's probably a good thing that our first year in Dar is one of the worst years in recent history for power cuts. Had we moved a year earlier, when there were only eight or so weeks of power rationing, this year might seem more brutal. But we are in an adaptive mindset, and that mindset is being exercised liberally.

The schedule for power rationing was supposed to last about six weeks, beginning in late November. Power cut season started on time, although a little shaky at first. Len's parents arrived the week rationing started and we were embarassed to lose power randomly throughout the days and nights of their visit. They were gracious and handled it well.

Little did we imagine that over three months later, the power cuts would be daily and increasing. At first we had four rationing spells per week - two all days and two evenings. However, the schedule is mutating rapidly. For several weeks now we have been rotating one day (8 AM-6PM) off and one evening (6 PM-11 PM) off, every day. And they have thrown random other outages in, when the power goes out or comes on slightly off schedule. But it was predictable for the most part.

This week, the power company seems to be on some kind of hallucinogen. Power off until 3 AM, 12 hour outages, three days in a row of no power except in the wee hours of the morning. It's like Philip Glass set to electricity.

Did I mention it's 90+ degrees, very humid and dirty from the lack of rain? And there are also water issues. Without our 5000 liters of stored water around the yard, we would be carrying water in.

Note to friends: pray for rain.

We had considered a generator a couple of months ago but decided against it. We really are trying to embrace living here in every way possible, and having a stinky, noisy machine in the yard that demands to be fed $30+ of diesel fuel a day isn't really our style no matter where we live.

On the other hand, having to throw away food that spoiled in the freezer because we don't have electricity isn't our style either.

Enter the lastest addition to our household:

 Yes, those are batteries. Kind of like very large car batteries. Eight of them.

And their master. Say, "I am the keymaster" from Ghostbusters. Say it in the Keymaster voice.

The batteries charge when the power is on, and when the power goes off, we flip a switch and voila: 5kva is available to us to use as we wish. We have to choose between big power grabbers, like air conditioning (which we rarely use anyway), the oven, or electric kettle (which pulls a huge power load in that minute or so it's on!).

One thing I like about this is that we only use the power for whatever is on, versus a generator, which is burning the same amount of fuel/energy/money every minute it is running, no matter what is actually being powered by it.

So our little inverter system was purchased a few weeks ago, and we're quite happy with it. And this week has reminded me why my husband is The Man. I was pretty 'eh' about getting a backup power system and he got 'er done, just in time for what is likely going to be increasingly worse outages as the power crisis here drags on.

As I get ready for bed tonight with a light on, the security fence powered and a fan cooling me, I am extra thankful for each person who supports us and allows us to serve here, and for this stack of batteries you've allowed us that is being put to frequent use!