Story Without Electricity And a Blast From The Past

Electricity has been a major problem all over my country for more or less the past 3 weeks. The government had said that there was a problem with the national grid, but it had already been taken care of only for me to read on twitter yesterday that there is a new problem with the national grid. Although, electricity in my vicinity was back to normal last week Tuesday, I could still hear the cry of other people both on the News, social media and of course, read.cash.

Just when I was starting to enjoy the stability of power supply, a windy rain decided to blow my enjoyment into thin air (I mean this literally and metaphorically). On Wednesday this week, the sound of the wind blowing against everything it could had woken me up from my beauty sleep, didn't need a fortuneteller to tell me what will come next, so I had to get up to close the window. It didn't take long before the rain started beating its droplets against everything outside.

Just when the breeze had started blowing, the electricity supply went off, but it didn't matter, as the rain would bring with it the coolness I the light had taken away. So, I went back to sleep and woke up about two hours later. I had expected the light to come back before or just after it had stopped raining. Much to my disappointment and shock, it didn't. I went out later in the evening with my cousin to the supermarket to buy some groceries and was shocked to see that there was light in the the area, but not at the house. i would expect anything that affects us affects every area around.

Up till this moment, electrical power had not been restored. I heard that the distribution pole carrying current to the estate had fallen down because of the rain on Wednesday morning. I wonder how long it takes to fix that sort of problem. It is the weekend and I sincerely am not expecting power to be restored before Monday as technicians of the distribution company usually don't work on weekends.

Since Wednesday, we have been running on generator. My problem with this is that we can't run the generator all through the night as there is a community law against it. For 'security' reasons, all generator must be turned off at midnight. This is when the torture starts. Even if I open the window it seems all the breeze outside made a pact to not enter the house, like it is a forbidden to blow into the house. To further compound the heat of the night, the musical vampires come out of their hiding to feast and dine on me. Nature and circumstances had provided all they needed.

I can categorically say I haven't had a decent night sleep since Wednesday. Lack of sleeps makes me cranky, I woke up this morning with a headache and up till this moment, my head is banging. I don't know if it is the effects of the mosquito bites I have been exposed to the last three nights or the lack of good sleep. W

As I went out this evening to buy fuel for the generator, I had met one of my secondary school (high school) classmates. Not just my classmate, he was my seatmate in class until he dropped out of school. It was a pleasant surprise more so because he called me what he used to call me many years ago 'Mathematician'. I was overwhelmed with sentimental nostalgia, he asked if I was schooling and as I answered YES, he gave a reaction of affirmation, as though he'd be disappointed had I answered otherwise. I think the last time I saw him was about 10 years ago, but it was good to see him today. He hadn't changed much and I suppose I haven't too because he recognized me when he saw me.

We exchanged numbers immediately, as it seemed he was in a hurry to return to his workshop. I suspected a customer was waiting for him there. He promised to call me and direct me to see his workplace, so we can catch up. As I walked back home, I reminisced about about the circumstances behind his dropping out of school.

As my seatmate, he used to be absent from school a lot, so I asked him one day why he absents himself from school so much. He opened up and told me he lives with his uncle who is a mechanic and from the things he didn't say, I supposed he wasn't so keen on school, so he had to learn his uncle's trade. I think that was the reason he was staying with him in the first place. I remember telling him that it is better if he focused on one and leave the other. I was glad to see he was doing good, and has even setup his own workshop. A pleasant blast from the past.

Thank You For Reading 🖤🖤