Pula and power

Yesterday was a monumental day.

We had our first real downpour yesterday (pula is the Setswana word for rain, also the name of the currency). It rained for almost 18 hours continuously, starting the previous evening. Up until now, we have had violent thunderstorms, but the rain only lasts about 10 minutes. This rain was the steady, cool rain that makes one want to stay inside with a book curled up on the couch. There are still huge puddles around, almost to flood levels in the some areas. This did not affect the students at all - they loved to play and splash in it during break time. It really cooled things off too; even now the temperature is quite pleasant in the low 70s.

However, I don't think the rain caused what is now an unprecedented loss of power. The power went out at 1:00 pm yesterday throughout the city and most of the country. It still is out for most of the city (the school's electricity came on at 6:00 this morning as did a couple of other areas). But the electricity at the housing complex is still out (it temporarily came on for two hours last night, thankfully for the refrigerator's sake). No one can remember when it has been out for this long. I expected to see more generators. I was in the grocery store yesterday and they seemed to be functioning just fine without power. However, there were people still in queue for the ATM after the power went on like somehow the money would still come out. Nothing like camping when you least expect it but we probably got an extra hour of sleep out of it.

I was in the middle of an ESL lesson yesterday when Russ came knocking on the door, completely out of breath, telling me we must go now nowto Immigration. This is something quite fascinating about Africa time which I learned a long time ago. Time can move very slowly, but when something actually really needs to happen, it must be now now as opposed to just now (which can mean it will happen anytime from ten minutes to four hours). So I hurriedly made a plan with the other teacher and off we went with Diesel, the school's driver. We were lucky to have him with us. Russ had already been down to Immigration earlier in the morning, filled out four pages of the residency application (again, as we had previously sent this in August), then found out we both had to do it simultaneously. The glitch was that we did not have the right size photos. We had sent "passport size" 2x2 photos which were too big. So our first stop was to the center of town where Diesel knew of someone who could take the photos quickly. We pulled into the parking lot where there were two guys with a chair, a sheet for the background, and a camera. We are the ones who should have had a camera to capture all of this. For 70 pula ($10), we each got four smaller photos, and then all the way to the other side of the city where the Immigration office was located. The officer was friendly enough, but Diesel really turned up the charm. The fee was paid from the school, our fingerprints were taken, and now it will take another four to eight weeks. But Lydia who is organizing everything from the school will try for an exemption, seeing as Russ' visa expires in three and half weeks. Russ missed a whole morning of classes, but that is common. Many people here have immigration issues, and when the call comes down from Lydia that it is time to go now now, they find coverage. It was the big excitement of the day. On the way home, Diesel paid our water bill, which was also nice because he cut to the front of the line (knowing people as he does).

I met a wonderful woman from Vermont who has been a psychologist here for the past six years. Apparently there is quite a community of mental health workers working as freelance contractors in Gab, which gave me some ideas of what I might do. It is very difficult to register with the government (let alone get a work visa) so these people mostly work under the radar and primarily with the ex-pat population.

An update on Zane's car still out in the middle of nowhere. It seems as though it is the crank shaft and it will take some time to fix, but it is safe at the chief's house.