Power to the People

On Groundhog Day the school went without electricity for the entire day.  For the past two weeks we have not had power in the evening, but this was the first time that the college had not fired up its generator during a week day.  The problem – no fuel.  Either the school has no more money or someone wasn’t planning ahead.  In either case the lack of electricity for the day drove home our dependence on it.  It gave us a taste of what life was like for us 40 years ago in Zaire and what life is like for many of the current PCVs teaching in rural villages.


During the rainy season Kenema gets its power, we are told, from a hydroelectric plant about 30 kilometers north of the city.  During the dry season, the electricity comes from fuel-burning plants near Bo, 50 kilometers to the west.  At some point in time, power-sharing becomes necessary and the two cities are put on some sort of rotation schedule.  Until yesterday it seemed like Bo was taking too many turns.  For the past two weeks, school days have been accompanied by the sound of our institution’s generator clattering away ten yards from our front door. We appreciate the silence when the generator is turned off at 5, but then we also know that darkness comes at 7 and we will have no electric lights to work and read by.

Then, last Friday a minor miracle happened.  President Koroma came to town.  He was passing through on his way to dedicate a new paved highway to our east.  He stayed overnight at the presidential lodge in our fair city.  I doubt that it was a coincidence that we had electric power all weekend long.  On Monday, the electricity left town along with the president.

In Kenema only businesses on the few major streets in town and a some residences like ours have electric service.  The power lines look ancient, and I wouldn’t be surprised if none of them have been replaced since independence in the early sixties.  The transformers are in the same shape.  Somehow the grid hobbles along.  When the power goes down, a business that requires electricity (like the popcorn stand) must close up shop or rev up its own generator.  Fadel, the man who runs Abba Mini Mart, has no choice.  To keep his store’s freezers going, he must shell out 500,000 Leones a day to operate his generator.  Ann and I have learned to cope also.

I Love Luci

Here is a list of our things that directly require electricity: ceiling lights and fan, refrigerator, tea kettle, CD/DVD player, iron.  Items that run on rechargeable batteries: laptop, Ipad, telephones, graphing calculator, electric shaver and our various flashlights.  The ceiling lights are great to have, but they are only missed from 7:00 – 10:00 in the evening.  Psychologically, there is something slightly depressing about sitting in the living room in the dark with only a flashlight or headlamp for light.  Fortunately, we have three solar powered Luci lights.  Strung up overhead, they provide enough illumination to read by.  In Zaire we had a powerful kerosene (Aladdin) lamp that made our whole living room bright.  We have yet to locate anything similar in Kenema.  The PCVs that visit us say they are fine with candles and they have Luci lights too.  The fan is replaced by manual fanning (Ann’s choice) or sweating (my choice).  Hot water can be obtained through our gas stove and the DVD player and iron we can no without for awhile.  We make sure we “top-up” the batteries in our other appliances whenever we can.  We brought over a solar battery recharger, but really haven’t need to use it too much.

We have learned to create enough ice in our freezer to tide us over when the power goes off.    Then, it is the simple matter of moving the refrigerator stuff up into the freezer compartment which becomes an old-fashion icebox.  A big lesson was learned on Christmas Eve.  A Christmas tradition at our house that Ann carried over from her mother is the making of peppermint "snowballs", ice cream mixed with crushed candy canes (sent over by our thoughtful daughters), shaped into balls and then rolled in coconut.   The ice cream needs to be softened to mix in the peppermint, so Ann had just taken the ice cream out of the freezer when men carrying a long ladder walked by our house.  With dismay, we learned that the college had picked Christmas Eve day to chop down three large mango trees that were threatening some power lines running near our house.  No matter that these trees had probably be "threatening" these lines for the last 50 years.

Hand - Chopped Mango

The power had to be shut off and the lines temporarily detached for the tree removal people to work safely.  Since these were not small trees, the groundskeeper estimated that it would take two or three days to fell all three.  Ann approached him with dismay noting that special holiday food was now going to be destroyed thanks to bad timing.  We were promised that they would work as quickly as they could.  The ice cream went into the freezer and we hoped for the best.

The operation was similar to that practiced in River Falls, start at the top trimming the limbs until the tree, trunk included, was below the power lines.  Marvelous things can be done with few resources in this country.  Using only a hand axe, the tree-trimmer climbed barefoot high into the trees and then held on to a strap wrapped around the tree and hacked away one handed. He managed to bring down the trees with the help of ropes to pull the falling limbs in the right direction and a couple of extra helpers without too much drama. He worked all day long and about five minutes before it was too dark to do anything more, the electricians reattached the lines and Christmas was saved.  We gave all the workers our sincere thanks for allowing us a bit of Christmas celebration.

Solar - Powered Street Light

Sierra Leone would do well to steer toward solar power, at least for some applications. From what I have seen, progress is slow in this direction.  Many cities have solar-powered street lights which work well as long as people don't steal the solar collectors or the batteries.  I have seen solar panels for sale downtown.  Theresa, one of the PCVs near us, had a solar panel installed on the roof of her house to power an overhead light.  She is working on bringing electricity to her village.  She says that the power lines cross right over it.  Shouldn’t take too much work to tap into that source. Our institution has a demo solar panel that powers lights in the automobile workshop.  I wish they would put another one at the guest house where we live.  In a way solar power already dictates the pace of life here.   Nothing really gets going until the sun rises.  When it is too hot in the afternoon, all work slows down. Late afternoons, you will see mothers bathing their children and people eating their main evening meal. Most work needs to be done by sundown. 

It is hard for me to decide what is the biggest impediment to development in Sierra Leone, but the lack of consistent electric power throughout the country undoubtedly ranks in the top three.  It seems to me that there is sunshine and water enough to generate power for everyone.  Money and will are all that is needed.