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a headline in today’s online nytimes - “power failures outrage south africa.”

this may make international news for south africa - the “europe of africa” - but it’s commonplace in uganda. load-shedding? we don’t have it for just a few hours in the afternoon, that would be luxury. no, load-shedding in uganda tends to be on a 24-hour-on-24-off cycle. yes, that means for 24 hours you have electricity, then for the next 24 you don’t. there’s some elaborate schedule for knowing when load-shedding’s going to hit your part of town; sometimes the schedule gets printed in the paper and (almost) always it isn’t followed.

the upside to uganda’s situation as compared to what’s happening in s. africa right now is akin to why i’d rather drive in snow in minneapolis than d.c. minneapolitans are prepared for the snow - we have snow plows and salt trucks that are out before dawn cracks, and as drivers we understand that if you’re going to stop in snow you gotta start early and don’t lock your brakes. the whole of d.c. shuts down in a snow storm (or so i assume from tv, since i’ve never been there), a “storm” being two inches of light flurries. ugandans are to electricity and load-shedding as minnesotans are to driving in the snow. everyone (businesses, at least) has a backup generator or inverter (that’s what we have), and if they don’t, who cares- there’s always some way to do whatever it is by hand…or not do it at all until there’s electricity. okay, so the fuel costs for generators are astronomical - especially now with the ongoing kenya unrest keeping fuel prices high - but the switch from on-power to off-power can oftentimes blend into the background noise of life in uganda. we’re lucky ‘cos we have an inverter, or as phil likes to call it our “huge a** battery.” we have six literally huge a** batteries that store electricity when the electricity is on then kick in when it’s off. we hear a click or see a flutter of the lights and we’re switched from one to the other. it’s a bigger front-end investment for the batteries and equipment, but in the long-run we save on fuel and are more environmentally friendly by reducing on both air and noise pollution. for those with no generator or inverter, or no electricity at all which isn’t highly unlikely in a large part of uganda, then life becomes a little more stop and go.

i’ve thought a lot about how uganda would be different if we had 24/7 electricity. for one, the government could be so much more efficient. now when you walk into a government office, immigration for example, you are confronted by floor to ceiling stacks of paper files. apply for a visa and watch in amazement as a staff member randomly places her hand into a stack thrid from the left, back corner and pulls out your very file. but, if you’re not so lucky it could take days before they track down your file. then once they do, it’s more time as everything is painstakingly completed by hand. a computer could do so much. for two, what are the options for entertainment in a village after the sun sets and it’s only 7:30? there’s a lot of reasons why the average fertility rate per woman is 6.7 children, darkness and boredom could be two of ‘em. there’s not a whole lot to do out in the village when the lights go out. for three, just imagine your workday with electricity. your laptop battery lasts 2 hours, 3 hours tops. you aren’t able to print anything. no faxing or photocopying either. forget presentations since no powerpoint or overheads or lights. i’ve never had a blackberry, but according to techies online a blackberry has a battery life of 3 hours talk time and 8 days standby. that’s great until you actually need to use it ‘cos you have no email (remember, no electricity for your computer). you have enough juice to get your work done for that day, battery dies, but no worries ‘cos the electricity will come on tomorrow and you can recharge, right? ugh, no electricity tomorrow either - that happens - and now you’re screwed ‘cos you’re going to have to do business by phone. you call your colleague on their cellphone - virtually no one has a landline in africa - but no answer. surprise, her phone’s dead. now, your only option is to drive (or more likely take a boda or walk) to whomever to do business and actually…talk…to…someone…face-to-face . (oh! the horror! to the american worker who does everything by email, fax, blackberry.) my scenario is exaggerated scenario, i admit, but this is my reality: among our three field sites, ssembabule doesn’t have electricity, mubende has it but it’s unreliable, arua normally has it all the time until kenya happened. now there is no electricity in arua until 3pm. at exactly 3 o’clock the electricity switches on and everyone scrambles to get 8 hours of work done in 2 before the work day ends at 5 o’clock. the point is work productivity diminishes, slowing the economy and decreasing growth…all because we haven’t figured out how to produce (or get) affordable, reliable electricity. just imagine where uganda could be on the development scale if we had electricity all day everyday. ah, to dream.

walking at night in kampala is a “do at your own risk” adventure. not because of potential robbery, but lack of light. you don’t realize how well america lights its streets until you’re someplace that doesn’t light them at all. forget about the fact there’s no sidewalks, and focus on the not being able to see where you’re putting your feet and being blinded 2-3 sec everytime a car drives at you further diminishing your ability to see anything but black and bright white spots. driving at night isn’t a cakewalk either. no lights. no lights to see the road, to see the potholes, to see the people. the govt made a big step in the lead-up to chogm and installed street lights all along kololo’s main drag. it’s a pretty curve of light that you can see from our patio view. it was a good gesture, but they struggle keeping them lit; no one department (kampala city council, dept of works and transport, dept of roads) actually has the funding to pay for the electricity. so, i was flabbergasted when the govt decided it was more “modern” to replace our perfectly functioning roundabouts with stoplights for the queen’s arrival, stoplights that function 60% (benefit of the doubt) of the time - remember, no electricity - versus roundabouts that are self-perpetuating. i dunno, sometimes i can’t explain “development.”

we’ve been lucky so far with our neighborhood selection and haven’t suffered terribly from load-shedding. first, we lived in bugolobi. the president’s daughter supposedly lived on the same grid, so surprise, surprise…no load-shedding. unfortunately for ERH, that benefit didn’t extend to the bugolobi flats - the eastern european-esque block of institutational-style housing - where they regularly load-shed and she had neither a generator nor an inverter. i never envied her regular (daily?) trips to the grocery store for perishables. now we’re in mbuya and up the hill from the president’s brother-in-law. we get more load-shedding here, not a lot, but it’s sporadic and unpredictable which is maybe worse than the 24 on/off schedule ‘cos we never know when to expect it. for example… there are certain appliances that can’t run on the inverter - microwave, hot water heater, iron, hair dryer - or they’ll blow the whole set-up. earlier this week i wanted to make quick oatmeal for breakfast. i had the instant oatmeal packet open before i checked to see if we had electricity. doh, no electricity. i just had the water on the stove to boil when “click!” and the electricity was on again. i rushed to microwave my oatmeal for its 2 1/2 min and had a hot bowl of oatmeal on the table just as i heard the “click!” indicating off elecricity, on inverter. whew, in the nick of time. reminded me of the time a few months ago when we hadn’t had electricity in so long our inverter was out of backup juice…the fridge had just about hit the point where i had to start throwing things out, when “click!”