Power Rationing Again

The news today warned of 12 hour power shedding, possibly starting tomorrow. Despite the gallons of rain we seem to get daily here, there has not been enough rain in the areas where the dams are located so the water level continues to be a concern.

Power rationing causes tremendous hardships for people here at all levels. Businesses suffer terribly. At one restaurant where we eat, the owner told us that virtually all of his profit was going to running the generator so that he could stay open. Prices are very high right now for virtually all foods and for charcoal and will likely stay that way until after the harvest time. A bag of charcoal, which can last a family 2-3 weeks if that's their only source of fuel for cooking, used to cost Tsh3,000. Now it costs about Tsh10,000. Keep in mind that a housekeeper like ours earns between Tsh65,000-75,000 per month. That's a huge chunk of income going to just fuel for cooking. For so many families the margin of survival is very low and it takes very little to push them into a state of crisis.

Back home, we tried to do our part with conserving and recycling, but I'll be the first to admit that it wasn't at the forefront of my thoughts every day. In fact, much of my conservation had more to do with conserving my money than the resources (why are the kids running that water again? who keeps turning on these lights?)

Here it's different. We are surrounded by people who have so much less than we do and the idea of letting water run or just throwing away food because you didn't like the taste is really terrible. We have heard stories that other family's workers will remove things from trash that we would consider no good, but they would use/eat. We feel much more keenly the realization that what we do has an impact on others and on the world.

I'm so glad that PHA will have water catchment systems in place to utilize the rain that falls, rather than just pumping water out of the ground "because it's there". We are also exploring collecting and reusing "gray water" for watering and irrigation needs. It allows us to be better stewards, better neighbors, and provides opportunities to teach the students how to be creative with using resources efficiently as well.