Another Ugandan blog about power disconnection – but this time a solution!

Umeme – our electricity suppler – have arrived to cut us off, which means both my home and my office are without power.

We rang the office to see what the problem is but were told we’d have to go in person to sort the matter out. Great. All other work has to be put on hold for the day.

‘Come now’ the guy said.

Electricity disconnection again (thanks to a previous tenant!) More previous wasted days…

Patrick and I jumped straight into the car, he to do the smooth talking, me to be the ‘mzungu back-up’ if that’s going to help move things along (unfortunately it often does).

Half an hour drive to the office. By the time we arrive, our contact has gone to the hospital!

We sit in one office for a while. Then we’re told to go and sit in another office. People are sitting around reading the paper and chatting but this turns out to be just a queue waiting to join the queue in the next office.

So we wait our turn. We’ve rushed to get here and there’s no sign of any drinking water available. It’s hot. We dutifully wait and shuffle into the next room.

We’re seen by someone who then tells us we were actually supposed to have been seen by the young lady in the previous office. We file out again, bored and frustrated.

Patrick gets chatting to the young lady – and lo and behold she is one of Patrick’s relatives – I should have known! A quick catch-up on family news and our electricity is reconnected.

That’s the funny thing about Uganda: an event happens out of the blue that lays waste to your whole day’s plans. You run around in a frustration trying to rectify it, usually to no avail. And then, when you’ve given up trying, out of nowhere a solution suddenly appears! And it’s usually in the form of a relative!