Power problems

The whole nation of Tanzania is on power rationing. There’s a timetable for when the power will be cut off for a particular area, but it isn’t proving very reliable. Our part of town is supposed to be without power for 14 hours every Sunday. So, I had invited a work friend (Helen) round for dinner on Friday evening, with plans also to play our instruments together (mine being an electric piano), without any thought of whether we’d have the power to do it. You can guess what’s coming…
…I arrived home from work to find that we had no power, even worse it wouldn’t return until after 9pm. (Oh, I forgot to mention, I have an electric cooker, so no way of cooking). Now what? I texted Helen and we developed a plan B, and I am happy to say we had a lovely evening. We took a walk down to town to get dinner, where I had chicken tikka and chips and Helen had pepper steak and chips. The only problem was having to talk loudly to make ourselves heard over the sound of the generator running outside. We walked back in the dark, under a beautifully starlit sky. Still no power, so we looked at photos on my laptop (which fortunately has a good battery) until…hallelujah – the power returned (9.10pm). Se we still go to make music with the piano and oboe.
Saturday afternoon I invited several friends around for cake. Not long after I had taken some flapjack out of the oven and melted some chocolate to spread on top, the power went off. I figured we’d just have to have cold drinks but…ten minutes later it was back on again.
So, who knows when the power will go off?! Have to be flexible here! And it makes you so much more thankful for lights at the flick of a switch when you’ve been straining to read by candlelight. (And I should just add, the power did go off on Sunday, for 15 hours!)