Power outage

Last night I experienced my first power outage in Khartoum. Apparently, there are many more to come!
I got home around 8:30pm and realized that I had to use one the “thatchas” my mother-in-law gave me to carry in my purse - a mini flash light which was just enough to guide my way through the walkway to the main door of the building and to my apartment –.

Once I got in and felt the heat, I decided to call my friend to ask her about the situation in her neighborhood and probably ask to sleep over because my apt. felt like an oven! At that moment, I see my neighbor who invites me to go outside with her and learn how to turn on the generator! I had never seem the generator, but it’s this big contraption which stays right on the sidewalk in front of the building! (I passed by it everyday and never noticed it) It's kept inside a cage secured by a huge locker! There are four buttons, which need to be pressed in a particular order and many others that we are not supposed to touch at all! I wrote down the instructions, but the difficult part is to open the lock to get access to these buttons! The hole collects dust and the key won’t get it! Once it does and we get it to open, it’s hard to close it! After we are done, we need to turn up switches for each apartment. It's a kind of annoying task, but I can handle it.


Anyway, it took us about 10mins to get it going, but it was a good experience. I needed to learn in case I am ever alone in the building when this happens next. This blackout also gave me an opportunity to get to know my neighbor a little better. We spent a few hours chatting and by the time the conversation was over, power had returned and we went to turn off the generator!

Today I went to the gym and the pool. It was a very nice (AND VERY HOT) day :)