Electricity

Well – no discussion of life here would be complete without a brief mention of electricity. Life revolves around electricity here – or perhaps the frequent lack of it. For various reasons – there is a shortage of electrical generation in Nepal – with the result that the biggest user of electricity (e.g. Kathmandu) has a “load-shedding”, “power-shedding” or “power cut” schedule that changes daily.

For example, according to my well-worn printed copy of the “Power Cut Schedule” (which is hard to read in the dark…) – today we did not have electricity from 4 to 11 AM, and then again from 4 to 11 PM. The hours of daylight here currently run from 5:45 AM to 6:30 PM. So – if you compare these two schedules – you can see we spend a lot of our evenings in the dark. And – there is a different schedule every day – so tomorrow we will not have power from 2-9 AM and then again from 3-10 PM. To add to the confusion – there are different power-shedding zones in the city – and I work in one zone – and live in another. It takes a while to get used to – and I will let you know when I do.

So – we all spend a lot of time focused on recharging batteries – for laptop computers, cameras, cell phones, portable lights, etc.

Another intersting part of electricity here – is the power lines that run everywhere. I think I can see why there is shortage of copper elsewhere in the world…

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