Day 12 without electricity: Change of scenery

The past twelve days have been a learning experience for me.

(Short background: my power is connected somehow to the middle school down the street, which usually works out fine, except for when the person responsible for paying the bill each month is out of town since there are not classes right now. So when the bill doesn’t get paid their power gets cut, and my power gets cut.)

My postmate who lives without electricity never at his house has been teaching me the ways of passing the time and where to charge your computer (and how to not feel guilty about mooching off other people’s power).

And, as the saga of the electricity being cut at my house continues so has the saga of the work that I need to get done on my computer. (Volunteer Reporting File, Gen Eq committee blog, looking at pictures of my nephew being adorable), so I set out this afternoon to find a new place where I could cross some things off my to-do list and maybe squeeze in an episode of The Wire.

I found my new location, as I figured I would, at my host father’s house, but I also turned down an offer from my neighbors (who had already been far too generous with their power) and avoided the bar where I usually charged because I can’t spend all my time drinking beee while I wait for the orange light on the power cord to turn green.

We talk a lot about community integration, but I didn’t realize how integrated into my community I was until I’ve been able to have a fully charged cellphone and a laptop and a iPod for the past 12 days, even though I come home and cook by flashlight.

My new workplace has plastic lawn furniture tables and chairs, all the yams I can eat and a rotating group of about seven children who come stand behind me as I type. And, after an hour and 27 minutes, a fully charged computer.