I’m sorry – I don’t care how long I’ve been in Bangladesh – explosions still scare the crap out of me. Whether it’s driving by a transformer as it explodes and showers the car I’m in with sparks or whether it’s hearing the sound of what seems like a bomb (only to find it’s a blown transformer) – explosions are scary. Clearly, life in the military is not for me.
But, more importantly, it’s a sign that things are getting bad here. Back just before Christmas, there was a strain on the water supply. Long outages without water were common. Previously on this blog, I wrote about how I had to time when I could shower or flush the toilet. It now seems to be that electricity will be the latest item to face severe scarcity.
The frequency of power outages – and the duration the outages last – has only increased since the arrival of summer heat (it’s summer already? what??). It used to be once every few days. Then it was once a day. Now, it’s not uncommon for the power to cut out three… four… or more times a day. The latest outage that happened just before I started this blog post came with a big boom – the sound of a transformer blowing up just down the street.
Clearly the system is strained – the demand for air conditioning is probably a big factor. I even bought a back-up UPS to handle the prolonged outages. The UPS isn’t anything fancy – just whatever I could find that was cheap and could last for as long as possible. It’s a no-name brand of questionable quality. I can only hope and pray that the next time I hear an explosion – it’s won’t be the UPS sitting next to me.
Yikes……Just be extra careful Shawn wouldn’t want anything to happen to you
I’m not sure how I stumbled upon your blog, but I really enjoy it. Sounds like you’re having the time of your life, and helping people at the same time. Good for you!