Andrew and I have lots of candlelit evenings. When the sun goes down at 7:00, he lights a few candles (I'm afraid of matches, fire, and generally all hot things) and we have what looks like a nice, romantic evening - just the two of us and a candle and a quiet evening ahead.
However, when this happens every other day, it starts to lose the romantic aura. These days we're having power cuts every other day and every other evening. That means that (when they are following their schedule, which is not always the case) that Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings our power is cut from 6:00pm to 11:00pm, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays our power is cut from 8:00am to 6:00pm. But sometimes instead of 6:00 it is 5:00 or 7:00, and sometimes it comes back on at 9:00 instead of at 11:00, and sometimes it is cut for a while on Sundays, too. In my mind, the whole point of having a schedule is so that you can follow it, but there seem to be frequent exceptions to that idea when it comes to power cuts in Tanzania!
My computer battery is pretty wimpy; it only works for about 20 minutes. Andrew's has a lot more gumption, though. We can use it for watching TV (downloaded or on DVD, we don't actually have a TV) for about two hours, so that is our entertainment on dark nights. We're careful to not open the refrigerator or freezer too much on days without electricity, and I have to plan my cooking around the fact that we can't put hot leftovers in the fridge several days each week. Also, thawing meat or cheese in the fridge can go much more quickly than anticipated when the power is off, so we have to think through issues like that, too!
We've learned in which position our light switches are on and off, because we're often going around the house at night (in the dark) making sure they are all off so at 11:00 when the power returns, we aren't awakened by the house lighting up. We've learned that African nights can be very, very dark if there is no electricity and not much of a moon that night. There are times when you truly cannont see your hand in front of your face. Contrastively, we've also learned that on a full moon night with a clear sky, it looks like the outdoor lights are on! We've also learned that cooking in the dark (and cleaning up the kitchen in the dark) is a hassle, so we make sure we're done eating by 7:00 when the sun goes down. There have been times, though, when I've been cooking by the light of gas stove - you know that little blue flame under the pan? Turns out it's bright enough to be of some good assistance when one is desperate!
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