Unplugged

I found out that the schedule for the planned blackouts this time of
year in Addis Ababa are not set for certain days. The national electric
agency cuts off certain zones on a 5-day rotation (more or less), which
is why we had no electricity last week Tuesday, then Saturday and again
on Thursday. This makes it a little easier knowing that we'll be
unplugged again on Tuesday (or Wednesday, depending on if Sundays are
counted). Since the water technology center has a generator, this
doesn't pose much of a problem for me, but the center secretary told me
that the big hassle for most households is that they are left with no
power for their refrigerator every five days. They have to follow the
schedule and make sure they finish off all their perishables/spoilables
in due time according to the blackouts. This reminded me of when I was
younger and we'd have the occasional power outage after a big storm.
Without television or lights, it was a bit boring, and always an added
challenge for me not to prop open the fridge and look for something to
snack on, as teenagers are prone to do.