Mouse!

Quite some time has passed since I last blogged. In that time our computer died and has been brought back to life with a new hard drive; we have had visitors (more in another post) and we still have no power on our island.
But for now...
Over the last couple of days we have become aware of a presence in our kitchen. In the morning's we would find half eaten vegetables in the veggie basket and ominous black droppings in strange places. The obvious conclusion was that we had a mouse.
It's all very well knowing this, but finding the thing is another matter entirely. For the last couple of nights we have systematically cut off all exits to the kitchen to discover that the creature must be living somewhere in the kitchen itself - delightful! Then this evening Rich found it in the fridge! Our fridge has been off for the last few weeks because keeping it cold has been too much like hard work with the lack of power here. The door had therefore been left ajar and one of the shelves in the bottom is being used to store our English chocolate supply.

The mouse sitting on a packet of peanut M&M's

However, whilst trying to get a photo, the mouse made it's move and escaped across the kitchen and underneath the oven where it seemed to vanish into thin air.

Rich trying to persuade the mouse to come out and the barricade across the kitchen to stop it from escaping again.

However, after pulling the oven out it was clear that the only other option left was to look inside the oven itself. So Rich took his trusty screwdriver (aka Stanley) and began to dismantle the oven. (The oven has been inactive for the last three months due to no power remember!)
Eventually Rich poked the right part of the oven and out popped the mouse. After running around the kitchen like a headless chicken for several minutes, it eventually found the door we had kindly left open for it and decided to make his exit.

This is our kitchen after the whole event. You will all be pleased to know that I stood bravely by on top of two tins of powdered milk taking photo's whilst screeching very loudly:)

DIY Roadworks

Most of the roads on our island are little more than dirt tracks with the occasional piece of coral rock sticking through the surface ready to puncture your tyre as you drive over it. Roadworks? What roadworks?

As a result of digging pits at our school (pits for sewage as well as for working under cars) we had lots of rubble lying around the place, so Rich decided to put it to good use and do some repairs on the road to our house.

Much quicker than repairs back home and probably not the same standard, but it does the job:)

Hakuna petroli

The latest problem to hit our island... no petrol. With the increased demand due to petrol generators and water pumps, there is a constant strain on the supply of petrol and the fear that it could run out at any time.

We have already had a week or so without diesel earlier on in the power outage and as of the middle of last week, there is now hakuna petroli (no petrol). Occasionally there is a delivery to one or other petrol station, but there is not enough petrol to go around and scenes of chaos generally ensue at these petrol stations. The pictures below were taken going past a petrol station that had a delivery that afternoon.

Here you can see the queue along the side of the road to the petrol station in the distance.

This was the scene on the station forecourt; cars jammed into every available space and people with cans and containers surrounding the pumps desperate to get what petrol they can.

At the front of this picture there is a guard with a gun. This seems to be standard procedure at the moment for petrol deliveries using the threat of violence to try and control the chaos.

Having spoken to friends who have business in town, the current situation is making business very slow. There seem to be less tourists around at the moment and as they make up such a huge part of the economy here, local businesses are suffering.

No news is not necessarily good news!

Six weeks into the power cut and we are still none the wiser as to when to expect the power back. I mentioned in a previous post that we would be looking into solar options. Well we did and having been quoted between 2.5 and 5 thousand pounds for a system that would run a couple of fans and the fridge for 4 hours a day, we decided to stick with the less green, but definitely cheaper, alternative of the generator. We did however invest in an inverter and a couple of massive batteries so that we can store some generator power during the day and sleep with a fan on at night. I'm sure that it's difficult for many of you back home to imagine right now what an enormous blessing this is to us but it is the difference between a restful nights sleep and waking up in a cool, dry bed or a restless nights sleep and waking up in a puddle of sweat (no joke).

Unfortunately, in the last couple of weeks our water delivery efforts have been forced to a stop. To begin with the van broke, requiring a new part that we couldn't get here on the island. Thankfully our team leader was in Germany at the time and was able to bring the necessary part back and the van is back in working order (apart from the rear windscreen which Rich smashed by driving into an open window at our friends house!) However, throughout the water delivery project, the water pump has been somewhat delicate and temperamental and finally last week ground to a halt. After several days working on the engine it was concluded that the pump would not work again. This left us with a dilemma; whilst we have enough money to cover the day to day running costs of the project (i.e. fuel) we definitely didn't have enough money to buy a brand new water pump. However, we discovered that someone, somewhere (maybe the American's?) is giving money to people who are distributing water for free to enable them to buy equipment - fantastic! So now we have a brand new water pump and hoses and are back delivering water around the town. Isn't it great how God provides?!

We have no idea when to expect power back and we hear that when it does come back it will be rationed. All we have to go on is rumours and gossip and we are learning not to listen to them as it gets your hopes up! No one who, one would expect, knows anything is saying anything so we are just persevering and lowering our expectations of power returning to our island anytime in the near future.

Eclipse.

Having done some calculations, Rich's Dad informed us some time ago that an eclipse of some sort would be visible from our part of the world today as the sun rose.

So we got up at silly o'clock, made a cup of tea and went up onto our neighbours roof in order to catch a glimpse. Sadly however, although we watched the sun rise, we saw no evidence of an eclipse.

Later in the morning we had a call from our team leader to say that the partial eclipse was now visible. Rich took a couple of photo's and in this one (taken through my sun glasses) you can see what was going on.

Everyone is now walking around seeing dark spots from having looked directly at the sun...

Doesn't look good...

I have already mentioned in a previous post that rumours are flying around in these days of no electricity.
I received an e-mail yesterday from a friend who has a 'reliable' source informing us that it is unlikely that we will have power restored before the end of March.
Throughout these last four weeks without power, we have been constantly trying to weigh up the benefits of investing in alternative power supplies, for example solar, but as this would be such a massive investment, we didn't want to spend out only to find the power back within a week. We have now decided that we need to think of a different solution to the generator. It is costing us personally around 3 times as much to run a generator (it is only on for 9 hours a day and we share the cost with our neighbours) than we spend on normal electricity, and we will soon come to the point when it is unsustainable. If there are any experts out there on alternative energy sources then please let us share in your wisdom!!

Another problem we have encountered just today is that the van we have been using to distribute water broke; something to do with the gears. Please pray that we are able to sort it out soon and get on with distributing water to those who really have desperate need of it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!