Monday, April 20, 2015

T - I - A or in Other Words: "This is Africa"

We jokingly refer to all things unique to Africa as T-I-A or "This is Africa!"
We would like to share the T-I-A for this past week ----
     South Africa is unable to provide enough electricity for everyone's needs. Therefore, they have come up with their solution, called "load shedding" which means turning off the electricity by rotation to each area of the entire country for two to three hours at a time. Right in the middle of whatever you are doing, the power goes off -- for two hours at a time in our area. It has taken place more often this past week. Before that, it typically was once a week.
BUT...let us share with you the T-I-A's for last week.
     Monday, 13 April -- power off during Family Home Evening at the Stevenson's beginning at 8 pm and finishing by flashlight.
     Tuesday, 14 April -- Transfer Day -- always hectic -- had load shedding from 11 am to 1 pm at the office.
     Wednesday, 15 April -- office had load shedding from 12 to 2 pm. Home had load shedding from 6 to 8 pm. Had a romantic dinner by "candlelight" (HA HA)
     Thursday, 16 April -- Had a new type of T-I-A. Mom took a shower when lst up. When Dad went to take a shower, NOT A DROP OF WATER LEFT! (Ooops!) Did Dad forget to pay our waterbill? (Oh, oh, in trouble now!) Headed to the office and discovered no water there either, and 2 other Senior Couples called with the same dilemma. (Dad off the hook!) One couple phoned the municipality and discovered a BIG watermain break. No water for the rest of the day. Office load shedding from 12 to 2 pm and home load shedding from 6 to 8 pm
     Friday, 17 April -- Just twelve hours from the last load shedding, 6 am to 8 am, home had outage again! Went to office and the load shedding there took place from 2 to 4 pm. Mom had hair appointment at 4:00 about a 10 minute drive away, and when we got there, the power was out there AS WELL. But luckily they had a small generator for the blow drier and a large window to let  in sunlight.
     Saturday, 18 April -- Went to the large Pavillion Mall during the afternoon and at 2 pm, just as we were purchasing our Cinnabons, MORE LOAD SHEDDING! You should have seen the crowds in the hallways, with half of the stores and the theatre closed, but some of the larger stores had generators for minimal lighting. We finished our errands at the Checker Hyper store in very dim aisles, attempting to find what we needed. Finally gave up and went home! 
     Sunday, 19 April -- Load shedding from 8 to 9 pm, during game night downstairs at Elder and Sister Poelman's.  But Sunday was a Very Special Day. Read about it in our next blog entry.
                               WOW -- WHAT A WEEK!

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