More Power to Ya!

this is James, a Cornerstone student, in the computer lab where i do all of my emails everyday!



So I’m sitting upright on my bed with my head against the backboard at 8:56PM with a lighted candle on a saucer atop my bed stand. Astrid had just left the room to go to bed, partly because she got bored and partly because it’s her bedtime. 9:00PM, I know, very early for a 14 year-old to be going to bed. The reason that I have a candle next to my bed and Astrid’s boredom is because there is no electricity in the house- or “no current” as people say here.

Though this is the first night we’ve had to actually light the candles, the city of Cape Town has had intermittent electricity outages for the past 4 days. Supposedly this could continue until the end of the coming weekend! All throughout the daytime the electricity in all the neighborhoods goes on and off without any warning. Every day this week Cornerstone’s electricity went out for part of the day! The lights, the computers, the printers, the gates, and the stove are all M.I.A.! The Cape Town resides are going crazy! People who normally have a 10 minute commute to their job, now have at least a 60 minute commute! Robots(traffic lights) do not work, so therefore there’s chaos at all of the intersections!

You might be wondering why there has been such trouble with the electricity here? Well I have an answer- a part for the city’s generator is broken and they haven’t received the part yet. Sounds pathetic, huh? Well that’s the story. Reporters keep on pushing back the deadline for this part to be fixed. So really who knows when the chaos will end.
I have 23 minutes or 13% of power left on my laptop right now. After this thing dies who knows when I’ll be able to write again. I don’t even know when I’ll be able to post this journal entry onto my blog. Guess I’ll have to revert to the ink and paper method. That could take forever to get to you all then! I’m never taking technology for granted again!