Electricity Problems

We have been without electricity for 5 days now.

Well, not fully without power, but for at least 12 hours a day, we've not had power. The unfortunately part is that we have been granted power during the sleeping hours of the night! Those folks at the electric company are pretty smart because they know that noone is using power late at night because they are ASLEEP! Interestingly enough, the power company leaves the power on while the World Cup games are on. For example, yesterday the power was out until about 10 mintues after the Portugal v. England game. Just when Portugal won and EVERYONE was going NUTS, they shut the whole entire city down. The lights remained off until about 11pm, and then came on until noon today. It's totally crazy and people are starting to freak out. The argument being that if Cape Verde is trying to become an internationally recognized country, then they need to get the power situation straightened out. Commerce cannot go on if people cannot run their businesses, keep their products cold, and safety is a concern when the lights are down. On the other islands, power is not an issue. Because Santiago is the biggest island and has far more people than the others, power is a problem in the summertime.

AHHH! Well, I think my roommate is about to have a breakdown because she can't use her computer and all of our food is going bad. I decided to come to Peace Corps because they have a generator and I can use the internet! GOOD DEAL! Oh, also it's hotter than Hades here and my house is a sweatbox. The fans don't work without power, so it pretty much sucks to live on the bottom floor with no venhilation. ANYWAY, I live in a 3rd world country in Africa, things could be worse! I'm keeping it postive! :)