Today I had an experience that I am positive would never have happened to me in the United States. I had an appointment for the cats to be sterilized, and the vet came to my home. He asked me for some soap, water, and a towel to wash his hands. Then he put Elliot to sleep and neutered him on my 3 by 3 foot plastic table on my front porch. He examined Fiddle and said she is still too little, so in three weeks my porch will once again become a surgical suite.
Our power is still off more than 12 hours per day, on the average. Today it was on until noon, but the voltage was so low and fluctuated so much that we couldn't really use anything. The a/c didn't work. Fans made strange noises and bounced between barely moving and going into orbit. The refrigerator and dryer weren't working well. For a long time now, the power has been coming on during the night some time and going off between 5am and 6am. David and I feel victorious when we get the coffee brewed before the power quits. Wouldn't you know that since I got up at 4:30am today to try to get a load of laundry done: 1. The power would stay on, and 2. the water would be off.
Last Friday we went to the talent show at Josh's school. He was one of the MC's, and several of our church youth were also in the show. We enjoyed seeing kids share their talents, and every grade was represented. The school pottery class had a table set up to sell their ceramics, and I was excited to find candle holders. We use a lot of candles (see above paragraph), and we've been setting them in empty tuna cans and jelly jar lids. That's fine on a flat surface, but they are not easy to carry from room to room that way because they get hot. The candle holders have handles for carrying them. There were only two left, so I grabbed 'em.
Next week is spring break and the church youth have a three day retreat March 14-16. Please pray for their safety and for spiritual renewal/growth. In years past, not all of the kids who went were Christians, and this is an opportunity for our youth to be witnesses in addition to growing themselves.
When reading your story on power interuptions, one should know that DR Congo has the largest hydro power stations in the area; they could have the capacity to EXPORT electrical energy to neighbouring countries! Google "INGA"; large projects were set up in earlier times, but just a fraction of it still is operational due to lack of fundings for correct maintenance..However, one must add that the engineers who keep some of the turbines going are real heroes of creativity to keep things working with little or no spare parts/fundings..
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