Power and Rain are Different

The Problem: 

Our electricity had been out for more than 24 hours, and we were the only ones affected; all-Mwanza blackouts are easier to deal with since you know they'll get resolved--eventually. When it’s just your house...that’s bad.

What Made it Extra Hard to Solve The Problem: 

• No proper address - Like most everyone here, we don’t have an actual house address. The postal system is based on PO Boxes. So when I finally reached the “technician” on my cellphone (which of course had only one bar of battery life left) I was writing stuff like--”We live near the school. Past the cows. Yellow gate.” 

• Bad communication -  Eventually, a technician was sent to our street (they had the wrong house of course since no one had clarified the directions and I wasn't able to call back right away to follow up because of a dead phone).  We hadn’t been told if/when someone was coming, so no one was around to let him in.  

• Power and Rain are “different” - Finally, a trio of technicians did show up to the right house in the evening but at the exact minute when they pinpointed the source of the problem, the sky opened up and sheets of rain poured down on us.  “Madam, rain and power are different. You can be dead from them! We will not work now.” I cursed Murphy under the porch as the three of us stood waiting for the storm to pass. 

The technicians ended up leaving a few minutes after the rain began “to do other work.” But they promised they’d be back in “30 minutes.” Three hours later they did come back and after 6 false starts, they did restore our electricity but not before bombarding me with a bunch of questions like, "Are you living with your brotha-in-law now Madam?", which I know without a doubt were leading ultimately to “Will you marry me? I need to marry an expat!” I cut them off long before they could get there though.

The end.