When I was in Colorado, we had about a 40 minute power outage following a thunderstorm. The next day, I heard people talking about the "long power outage," which I found absolutely hilarious.
There is a lack of electricity in Cambodia. During the hottest days, such as in the last few weeks, everyone is using it, and since there's just not enough, grids go out regularly. Outages last anywhere from a half hour to several hours. Outages of one to two hours are not unusual.
Outages of five plus hours, or seven, or eight, are, but not unheard of. Case in point: today, when most of Phnom Penh has been dark since lunchtime. When I got home around two, it was out. I was already planning to go to a cafe and get some work done, and figured that, as it usually is, it would be back by the time I got home.
It was not. A few minutes of waiting around, and a friend returned a call from the day before, asking if I was free right then. I was, and went to a second place, assuming, once again, the power would have returned when I got back.
It had not. I thought, you know if this was the US, I'd trust that someone was working on this. As it is, I don't at all. I imagine someone's idea of fixing it is waiting until it works again, though I could be wrong about that. In any case, faced with a stifling apartment, I plugged in my dongle and checked café hours.
Success: Brown was still open, for another hour. I packed up and went out, and that is where I started writing this. I was somewhat pessimistic this time about the possibility of power being on when I returned, but I did have a friend with power willing to let me loaf lined up just in case.
It's interesting -- sometimes the stoplights go out when the power is out, sometimes they don't. On my way home from the second café, I was really excited at the fact that the nearest stoplight was working again, but as soon as I turned down my street, I knew it was a no go, the whole street dark, except for the few fancy places with generators.
This time, on the way home, seeing promising signs like streetlights, but I wasn't convinced until I turned down my street and saw streetlights there.
It was like finding the promised land.
Honestly, I spent close to ten dollars -- green tea, a green apple smoothie, and a mixed berry chiller (being sort of sick was a blessing in disguise, as coffee and food, two things I wasn't much interested in today, are more expensive) -- just to avoid the outage, hunkering down in places with generators and air conditioning, internet and plugs for the computer.
Coming back in my room, with lights!, and turning on the air con (!), I thought, I would be absolute toast in a time and place without electricity. Seriously, what did people do?
One thing's for sure -- they probably didn't run away from it, gathering all manner of electronic devices and running to the pockets where the lights go on when you press the switch. And you know what?
I think the ten dollars was worth it.
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