Making the connection, 14/3/09

The long-awaited electricity meter was installed while I was away at prayer retreat. However, before it could be put to use I had to run a cable from it to my house, 300 metres away (why was the meter installed so far away? you may be wondering. Answer: because that's where the last mains electricity post is!). Thankfully someone in a house between mine and the meter has already done the same thing and was willing to let me add my cable to his on the poles he has set up. So with that help and due to a few tress growing in convenient spots I only needed seven extra poles to support the cable. Hence Fulbert and I spent an hour or two one Saturday searching out and cutting down the required poles in the small woods half a mile behind my house (some of the trees here have the happy knack of growing very straight and being relatively strong while not too thick so you just have to cut them so you get a fork at the right height. - Mind you, such ones do take some finding!)

One of the few advantages of our very sandy soil is that it's easy to dig the holes to plant the poles in!

With the poles in place we started to run the cable over the tops and through the trees. A relatively easy task as long as you have someone who can climb any tree needed! Thankfully here lots of people can and we gradually acquired a small group of lads only too happy to assist with that part of the task. However, the clouds had been gathering and the thunder rumbling for an hour or two and as we finished laying the second roll of cable (i.e. 200 meters in) the wind suddenly picked up ferociously and the rain lashed down mercilessly. Undaunted we pressed on, and were soaked to the skin in seconds! (don't worry, I hadn't actually connected the cable to the meter yet!). Several trees, a pole and a roll (100 meters) of cable later, shivering and jumping around to keep warm even though the rain had slackened, we.... ran out of cable! Just the distance across my garden to go, so tantalisingly close! However, it was already mid-afternoon and there wasn't much hope of me hunting down any more cable in time to lay it that day so I thanked my friends and they went home. After drying off I did discover a 13 meter length of cable in my tool room, but I was fairly sure it was not sufficient and anyway I didn't feel like a second drenching on the same day. Thankfully, the next afternoon I was surprisingly able to buy the 20 metres I needed in a small shop in Léconi and I finally made the connection. Now I am enjoying the pleasures of more and brighter lights, a fridge which not only supplies cool drinking water but keeps leftovers fresh without having to re-heat them in a pressure cooker every day, a desk-top computer so my language helper can enter her own texts and the relief of being able to make bread in just five minutes! (ok. it still takes the bread a couple of hours to be kneaded and baked, but I only have to spend five minutes putting the ingredients in the pan and the machine does the rest – unless there's a blip in the supply of course) {26/3/09 or the drive belt breaks! Just spent an hour taking the machine apart to find out why it stopped working. Why don't manufacturers make it easy to get to areas where they know a part may need replacing and even tell you how to do the replacement and the part number. Here's hoping I can find a similar belt in Franceville this weekend} and many other conveniences that mains electricity brings. The question now is how many people I share this convenience with – already three neighbours have asked if they can tap into my line!

Thank you again to those of you who prayed specifically for this.