of kerosene and cold showers...

well, life in kigali remains interesting and full of surprises - on saturday night, around sunset (how timely) the lights went out. we were sat on the terrace thinking, shoot - have we run out of electricity? when we went to check the meter it was completely off - so we didn't run out of credit; it was our first power cut. we took it easy - after all we live on the same road as the prime minister - power was bound to be reinstated as soon as possible. it is now tuesday and it's still not back... there must be a real problem!

just as well that we had bought kerosene lamps and a gallon of fuel - it came in handy these days! it was quite fun on saturday - you know, the sort of thing that doesn't happen every day and as we went out for dinner and then went straight to bed afterwards it didnt' really matter that there was no light. the next morning still no power - but who cares, we cook on gas and the sun was shining. we spent all afternoon at the pool of the novotel, soaking up the sun and working on the tan. what more can a woman want than to lie in a deckchair with the sun shining in her face, a cold beer in hand and fit blokes parading up and down the lawn... could it get any better? well - it could get worse - still no power at home but in need of a shower after the pool... mmmh - not the most fun thing in the world - but at least I don't have long hair! then another dinner at the restaurant because cooking in the dark just isn't fun and again straight to bed after dinner.
by the time we got home last night and there was still no power I started getting a bit fed up with it all - to add to it the wick in one of the lamps was finished so we were down to one lamp now... great! we couldn't be bothered to have yet another meal at the restaurant, so we went on to cooking in the glare of the flame - it was not too bad actually.

getting up this morning was extra hard for some reason - maybe because I knew I could not put off having a shower - and what could be more exciting than a cold shower on a sleepy body... ? I sincerely hope that we will have our power back tonight! at the same time it helps to realise that we cannot take these things for granted and that some people live like this (and worse) all the time - so really I shouldn't moan - at least I still have running water!