power outages

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So this entry is being written not about my travels or classes but about Cape Town in general. For starters the power is out in the city (or parts of it including Rondebosch where I am) for the 4th time in 3 days. (as of Tuesday)
Cape Town is said to be one of the most “westernized cities in Africa” which is one reason why I am here.
However, for being one of the largest cities in Africa I would have suspected that the power here would be more reliable. Sunday the power was out not only in Cape Town but the entire Western Cape (basically the entire Western Cost). I thought I would stop by the Catholic Church and wait between services (little did I know that 9 was there last morning service when I arrived at 945) but when I arrived the cathedral was dark, I thought it was maybe just for the mood but when I arrived home one of my housemates said the power was out.
One of the girls has a friend from here who said the power can go out for weeks at a time! Let me just add that at this point there are 13 people still sharing a fridge half the size of an average American fridge. In order to save our food we thought having a large braai (bbq) was our only option. Lucky for us it came on Sunday night.
Throughout the week the power went out around 930 every morning. They are apparently “planned” but early in the week hardly anyone knew about them, now they are published daily. Earlier in the week it went out in the middle of three people’s dinners being cooked in our less then adequate kitchen. I would suspect this if I was studying in a township, smaller community, or even a smaller city, but not in Cape Town.
Some said it was to conserve energy, due to one of the power generators for the city being broken. Someone said this was not common until 6 months ago, and since it has happened a few times a month. I can’t see how businesses can afford it. It reminds me of working at Carlos this summer when we served chips and salsa to a few customers during a power outage because that was all we had to offer.
Last night a few of us decided to go to the near by movie theater because it was lucky Rondebosch’s night off from having the power off. However 20 minutes into Chonicus (an Equador film) the power went out and everyone had to get a refund. It is so unpredictable! The predicted times for specific suburbs is not at all accurate and always seems to go the opposite way in which we expect.
One major rule when this happens is DON’T OPEN the FRIDGE!

UPDATE! This blog has been rewritten every day since Sunday since I have not had a chance to post it because of reoccurring power outages
The new rule in the house: If the POWER goes out while one is using the STOVE don’t forget to TURN THE BURNERS OFF! …that could have been a disaster!

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Comments

[maggie]

ooooh no!!
Meg!! I'm sorry to hear about the power...kind of makes it hard to do daily stuff, i can imagine. I hope school's going well--does the power go out there too? (I know you don't have much time and with the power going out probably dont have much internet time, so dont worry about answering those questions--haha) love ya miss ya!