Life and Electricity in Nigeria

Before beginning this posting – I kid you not – I had gotten into another post on the Bishop of Kafanchan and the ends of the earth. It was really well done. All of a sudden the screen went blank. All was lost. Only to be recovered in a far lesser quality than the original.

That’s life here. NEPA, officially Nigeria Electric Power Association, stands for Never Expect Power Anytime! For me that uncertainty has meant making sure that all four of my electronic gizmos are charged – both batteries of the camera, the computer, and the phone. Happiness is listening to some of my Mozart before going to sleep, with the cable attached, waking up to no power but having the computer charged before it went off.

Sometimes it stays off for over 24 hours. That’s a real bummer. Zacchaeus also likes his tea, so he has a backup stove for that, but the other things that plug into the wall just have to lay there.

Thing is, I’m the only one who notices. The Nigerians, they just keep on as if nothing is wrong. And in fact, they know how to keep on because nothing really has disrupted thieer routine. They cook over wood, they sit outside and chat in the evenings, washing clothes is by hand and in cold water, and – did I mention – my showers have all been with cold water. Life just goes on.

A very welcome sound is the agonizing motor of the ceiling fan as it turns on, signaling that the power is back. Me, I plug things in; the others hardly notice and hardly care.

There is TV. Zacchaeus is a news hound, well, as much as one can be in this electric world. I have watched a couple of news programs with him. One in particular caught my attention. It came on PressTV on two successive nights. In each they blistered the US. Then I caught on – these programs were produced in Iran. The producers disguised that well, with the moderator’s accent being authentic US, and the news clips from our outlets. But the bias! I can only hope that the viewers here can see these programs for what they are.

I always have a shakey Internet connection, meaning that it connects, makes me think I am on for a while, and then disconnects before an e-mail has been sent. Lost! Frustrating!

But not Zacchaeus. Like other Nigerians and like all issues relating to electricity, he doesn’t bother with e-mail. Life goes on, and for them it is normal life.