Solar Panels Rock

Lets just say that I'm over living hard-core. I used to kind of regret that I had electricity at my site, because I wanted to be able to go home and tell everyone that I lived in a place with no running water and  no electricity and then I could expand on all the hardships I had endured. Then I could feel good about how hard core I am.

As it turns out, that stuff really doesn't affect your every-day life. Any life you choose to lead, if you lead it for long enough, it just becomes normal. (I noticed that when mom came to visit and she kept hitting her head on my doors. She just couldn't get over how short they were. I had completely forgotten how annoying that was. I had just gotten used to it.)

But for the last two months, the generator in my village has been broken. That means no electricity at all. That means no charging your cell phone. That means at 7 PM, if you don't light a candle or a lamp, you can't see anything inside your house and you're scrambling around to find the candle or the lamp. That means you can't charge the batteries in your headlamp and your camera. It means no computer, no movies, no entertainment other than the company of other human beings. It's just really annoying. I have lived with no electricity now for two months, and have gotten used to the lifestyle, just like I have with all changes that came with living in the interior. I have taken to washing myself by candlelight, and eating dinner with a lamp at my side. But there is one thing I really can't get used to. Always having to get things charged with people that have a generator. I dread the day, every four days, when it comes time to charge my phone and I have to leave my phone's side. And then there's a 50 percent chance the person won't actually stick the phone into the charger properly, so maybe it won't get charged at all. AND the general price for charging your phone is 1 SRD.  There is nothing good about charging your phone elsewhere. It is lame.

So, I have decided that I have done my time. The hardship of having no electricity is not cool. Please, dear god, make them fix the electrical network in my village in a timely manner, and may I find a decent amount of lighting in my house from approximately 7 to 11 PM once again. Thanks.

Speaking of which, the solar panels that I have installed have become incredibly useful. That's how I'm powering my laptop right now. That's how, one boring night, I powered the projector that played an AIDS education movie for the whole village to see in the village's meeting house. (Peace Corps moment, anyone?)

If we had functioning speakers that could overcome the loudest peanut gallery I've ever heard, I would play movies that way more often. It was almost perfect except that we couldn't hear anything...

So here is my ode to solar panels. In a place where there is no electricity, they gave a person who cannot live without her iPod, camera, laptop, headlamp, phone and various other appliances, a little hope. Thank you, solar panels, you rock.