Making do without Power

So during my first week or so here in Kenya, I’ve been learning to get accustomed to frequent power outages. In just the past week, my roommates and I have cooked our evening meal by headlamp twice and eaten dinner by candlelight (very romantic).  And we have had to run the generator during the day to power the office computers and wifi for at least a portion of the day for 4 out of the past 5 work days.  In addition, I’ve started to keep my headlamp somewhere on my person in the evenings (usually hanging around my neck, quite the fashion statement) so as not to be caught in the middle of something somewhere in the house with no light.

Frequently the outages occur during the daily rainstorms, but sometimes there is no obvious explanation. For example, last night, the power went off about 3 times between 6 and 9 p.m. Each time it came back on, it ranged from being on less than 1 minute to no more than 10-15 minutes before shutting off again. It certainly makes life interesting!  I hear the power is even less reliable in Uganda, so I will have to report on that when I get there later this year.

Generator used to power the office during work hours

Something else I’ve noticed is how good my Kenyan colleagues are at conserving energy.  The one fluorescent tube light in the office is basically never on during the day, because we have light that comes in through the windows.  One day last week, when we were working on data entry, I turned on the light to try to see the source document I was working with a little better.  One of the staff members came up to kindly ask me if I really needed the light on?  I felt a little guilty, but yes, I did given I could barely make out what I was reading. Meanwhile, at the same time, we have another group of Kenyan staff members that works in the dining room, further from the windows, and usually they seem to be working in semi-darkness. It is certainly a contrast from American office buildings that have lots of overhead lights, plus individual desk lights, that are often on even in the evenings when nobody is there.  I think the conservation here is a combination of trying to mitigate the cost of energy, cultural differences with what comforts you’re used to having, and working for a nonprofit.  Either way, it definitely causes one to think about what conveniences we take for granted as part of daily life in the US.