Over a week ago we were sitting at a little place on the north side of the capital, waiting out the chaos of what can loosely be termed an election. We finally got the call from Pastor Makumbi telling us we could go home on Saturday morning. Floyd was ready to break out of that "holding cell" so the call couldn't have come soon enough for him. :)
When we got home, we discovered that the power had been out for at least a full day, possibly longer. We also found that there was an error code on Yaka box (the device that shows us how many units of electricity we have left). We called the power company to report it. Unfortunately, this was the first of dozens of calls. A week in, the power was still out and we were out of fuel for the generator.
On Thursday, our friend, Henry, told us that he knew the problem and he knew a guy that could fix it. You see, everyone in the nearby village was also lacking power and getting fed up with the wait. The electric company seemed to be doing nothing. Most of our calls were met with, "we thought the problem was resolved. We'll send someone." So, on Thursday,Floyd and Henry got in the beast and drove to the next village. They talked with all the folks that they gathered around and they made an agreement. Floyd and Henry would go to Kapeeka (the nearest big village) to pick up the guy who could fix the problem. Then they would take him to find the location of the problem and fix it. The folks in the village would take up a collection to pay this guy for his labor.
It is not our desire to solve everyone's problem and remove all responsibility from them, so we weren't just going to fix the electric. We have no desire to be the "white savior". So, after Floyd assured them that he wasn't going to bear the burden for them, they agreed that it was only fair that they should chip in. So, Floyd and Henry headed to Kapeeka.
They had to drive half-way to a village in the other direction to find where the line had come loose, but they did finally find it. The guy said he fixed it, but as it would just so happen, when Floyd called me to verify whether the power was actually working, I had to tell him that the power was actually off at the moment. You see, when the power is off, the Yaka machine doesn't display anything. When the power is on, it displays the units remaining or the error code.
So, they had to trust the guy and drive him back to Kapeeka. Fortunately, by the time Floyd got here, the power had been turned back on and the error message was gone! We were so grateful for electricity! I was quickly preparing dough to make bread and starting a load of laundry in the washer, as we'd been without for over a week.
This is the second time that we've taken matters into our own hands to fix the electricity. The last time it was because 3 fuses were left out of the main jumper box. That time, we also waited a week for the electric company before we heard that someone knew how to fix it. Can you imagine this happening in the US? It strikes me as so odd. The power company doesn't even realize that anything happens. They called us today to ask if our issue was every resolved.
In case you're wondering, the last time we bought electric units, I took a photo of Floyd making the purchase. You can go to an office to buy units, you can use mobile money, some petrol stations can make the transaction, or you can use one of these little machines. This is definitely the easiest, fastest, and most secure. You put in your account number, enter the amount you want, and it prints an actual receipt. Which ever method you use, you get a really long receipt code. When you get home, you enter that code into your Yaka machine and the units are added to your system. Each month, there is a relatively small charge that you have to pay, but that's it. If you run out of units, your power just goes out until you add more. They don't expire, so you can buy a bunch at once. We just have a monthly budgeted amount and we buy that each month.
When we got home, we discovered that the power had been out for at least a full day, possibly longer. We also found that there was an error code on Yaka box (the device that shows us how many units of electricity we have left). We called the power company to report it. Unfortunately, this was the first of dozens of calls. A week in, the power was still out and we were out of fuel for the generator.
On Thursday, our friend, Henry, told us that he knew the problem and he knew a guy that could fix it. You see, everyone in the nearby village was also lacking power and getting fed up with the wait. The electric company seemed to be doing nothing. Most of our calls were met with, "we thought the problem was resolved. We'll send someone." So, on Thursday,Floyd and Henry got in the beast and drove to the next village. They talked with all the folks that they gathered around and they made an agreement. Floyd and Henry would go to Kapeeka (the nearest big village) to pick up the guy who could fix the problem. Then they would take him to find the location of the problem and fix it. The folks in the village would take up a collection to pay this guy for his labor.
It is not our desire to solve everyone's problem and remove all responsibility from them, so we weren't just going to fix the electric. We have no desire to be the "white savior". So, after Floyd assured them that he wasn't going to bear the burden for them, they agreed that it was only fair that they should chip in. So, Floyd and Henry headed to Kapeeka.
They had to drive half-way to a village in the other direction to find where the line had come loose, but they did finally find it. The guy said he fixed it, but as it would just so happen, when Floyd called me to verify whether the power was actually working, I had to tell him that the power was actually off at the moment. You see, when the power is off, the Yaka machine doesn't display anything. When the power is on, it displays the units remaining or the error code.
So, they had to trust the guy and drive him back to Kapeeka. Fortunately, by the time Floyd got here, the power had been turned back on and the error message was gone! We were so grateful for electricity! I was quickly preparing dough to make bread and starting a load of laundry in the washer, as we'd been without for over a week.
This is the second time that we've taken matters into our own hands to fix the electricity. The last time it was because 3 fuses were left out of the main jumper box. That time, we also waited a week for the electric company before we heard that someone knew how to fix it. Can you imagine this happening in the US? It strikes me as so odd. The power company doesn't even realize that anything happens. They called us today to ask if our issue was every resolved.
In case you're wondering, the last time we bought electric units, I took a photo of Floyd making the purchase. You can go to an office to buy units, you can use mobile money, some petrol stations can make the transaction, or you can use one of these little machines. This is definitely the easiest, fastest, and most secure. You put in your account number, enter the amount you want, and it prints an actual receipt. Which ever method you use, you get a really long receipt code. When you get home, you enter that code into your Yaka machine and the units are added to your system. Each month, there is a relatively small charge that you have to pay, but that's it. If you run out of units, your power just goes out until you add more. They don't expire, so you can buy a bunch at once. We just have a monthly budgeted amount and we buy that each month.
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