In the dark

I am currently sitting in the dark. The power went off around 5:30pm, a few minutes after I stepped from work. The rumbling thunder probably had something to do with it. Or as someone informed me, there is a power shortage and various communities are taking turns not having power – load sharing (I think). Anyway, now I’m sitting in the dark with the eerie glow of a laptop screen. It’s 10pm and in my opinion, still too early to go to sleep. Maybe I am in an over contemplative mood, but it’s amazing how light shapes how we live. The only way I can sustain my routine of staying up until midnight is thanks to light and electricity.

When the power went out, my housemate and I thought we were going to resign ourselves to a bread and jam sandwich, and a few peanuts for dinner. This was the first time the power has been off for an extended period of time and I never knew the complex could be this quiet. There was no music, blaring television, not even kids jumping on their trampoline. Since jam was not that appealing, my housemate and I were easily convinced to join some other people in their search for an actually dinner. We stopped at every place that seemed to have power and eventually ended up at a café/diner. Apparently, when there is a power cut in Lusaka, foreigners like us can’t really fend for ourselves and go out for food. The parking lot of this café represented a wide range of development organisations, international aid, and UN agencies. My conclusion is that a power cut during dinnertime is good for local restaurants that cook on gas.

Then again, restaurants cater largely to the mzungu population anyway. I wonder if anyone has calculated how dependent Lusaka businesses are to development workers. In addition to bringing in development aid, the mzungu affinity to partying, drinking, eating, shopping, etc. is good business for a number of establishments. Development really is an industry.