Electrical Adventures

There's a technical theater joke that goes:

Q: What do you call an electrician who is trying to do carpentry work?

A: A bad carpenter

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Q: What do you call it when a carpenter who is trying to do electrical work?

A: A dead carpenter

Though I haven't done much carpentry or electrical work in a long time, this weekend made me think of the latter half of the joke.

Our power was out most of the day Saturday. It came back for the rest of town, except for our house and the ten or so immediately surrounding us. In the past, we've had problems with the wind knocking loose the wire that connects to our house. To make sure that wasn't the problem, I climbed on the wall that surrounds our compound and inched along the top surface to the offending wire (the wall is made of concrete blocks and is 2 meters high and the part I was standing on was about one foot wide). I used a broom (isn't that always the tool electricians use? -- I would've used a fork but they just weren't long enough) to try to knock the wire back into place. It didn't accomplish anything, but at one point, I fell and just managed to stay on the narrow platform I was on (probably would've broken something if I'd fallen to the ground). Turns out it was a different problem (never actually explained to us) and finally at 9:15 pm (13 hours after power was cut and 3 hours after it returned to everyone else) our lights came on.

On Sunday, the situation was different. Power went out at 9 AM, and we could hear radios and welding kit in the neighborhood, so we knew everyone else had power. I was in town most of the day, but when I got home, I felt more confident. I climbed the wall with the broomstick and poked at the wire again until I saw an enormous spark and our lights came on. I was a little startled, but after my stumble on Saturday, I kept my feet firmly planted.

We're still losing power for an average of 8 hours a day due to rationing (including today). Kinda makes me miss my Kenyan village where power was much, much more reliable than the third biggest town in Tanzania...