When the electricity turned off in our apartment this morning, I must admit, I barely even noticed. It was a sunny morning, so the house didn't seem dark. Using a laptop with plenty of battery meant that I just kept typing away. When I attempted to go to wikipedia to look something up, I realized that the power and internet were out. How long it had been that way, I'm not sure I could say.
I swung open the window in Jonah's room and asked the guard (the station is right there) what's the deal with the electricity? He said: they are disconnecting people right now!
Egads!
I threw on some proper clothing (as I was still in my bathrobe... it was the morning, no judgments) and rushed out to figure out what was going on. As I raced down the stairs, I was pretty sure that the building manager had only handed us the bill on Sat (as we hurried out to schul). Certainly, we weren't late, *yet*.
Sure, enough, the bill was due yesterday - that is, Sunday. One day after receiving the darn thing. And today, Monday morning, our electricity had been disconnected. To fix this, I was told, I would need to go into town, pay a reconnection fee plus the bill in order to have power. I pleaded with the guy who was weirdly wearing a white lab coat, as if disconnecting peoples' power was like brain surgery. Please don’t do this to us. I'll pay right now. I'm new to town. I have a small child. I was trying to come up with any excuse at this point.
Apparently, my pathetic pleading worked. I called Daniel who has MPESA set up on his phone. He sent over money electronically to pay the bill. He sent me the confirmation and in less than 20 minutes, we had electricity in the house.
We are the lucky ones. I am told that the power company turns the electricity off in the slums too (wherever there is electricity. Not all slums have it), with little or no notice and the electricians at the helm have far less sympathy for lifetime Nairobians who haven't paid their bills - regardless of how essential electricity may be. The whole thing is a racket to get people to pay the reconnection fee.
I understand my privilege in this case. I am white. I had the money ready to pay. I was working from home and therefore able to address the electrician directly. Someone with fewer resources at their disposal would've been way worse off.
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