Christmas in April

Bringing it back-working by candle light.



"River of Power?"

We have been planning our days around load shedding since I arrived in January. You never know how much you rely on power until you are without it for 8+ hours a day. However, you also realize that you can do without it, improvising and coming up with alternate solutions. We are now programmed perfectly on the load shedding schedule- so you can imagine our surprise when at 9AM this past Sunday morning, the power did not go out. The snow is melting in the Himalayas and the water level of the rivers is rising. More water equals more power- this means that the dry season is over and we must prepare for monsoon season. It feels really weird to have power for most of the day. We are so accustomed to the dark that it literally feels like Christmas every night with lights. It makes doing business so much easier when you have access to the internet and can work at all hours of the day. We learned to appreciate a light switch, an internet connection, a hot meal and hot water. To put it all in perspective- what we think we need, we just really want.

KATHMANDU, April 28 - With the increase of water levels in the rivers, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has decided to cut down load shedding. Starting Tuesday, the NEA has fixed load shedding for 21 hours a week relieving people from power cut for 2 days. The load shedding will be imposed for two and a half hour for 3 days, eight hours and six hours respectively for another two days. Before this, the consumers had to suffer more than 40 hours of load shedding. The NEA has announced that the duration of power cut will be decreased gradually.