There is a terrible problem with electricity in Nepal. There is not enough of it to go around. As a result it is rationed - a system known as 'load-shedding'. At present, there are 16 hours of load-shedding in each district of Kathmandu a day, i.e. 8 hours of electricity. There is, at least, a schedule so you can plan your day/work around it.
At Sapna and Rabi's, the situation is not so bad. Like most comfortably off people, they have an inverter so we can, at least, have lights on around the place. The rest of the available power from the inverter usually goes towards a few hours of television, but the quality of the picture isn't great. Laptops can be charged when electricity is available and used when not. The only thing I really miss during load-shedding is internet access, which is why I often don't blog for a few days then put several posts up at once. It's also why some e-mails go unanswered for a while. Sapna and Rabi live down a side lane, and when there's load-shedding the street lights don't work, which makes it pretty creepy coming back at night. In fact, being out on the roads after dark is substantially more terrifying and dangerous than being on the roads during the day, which, as I've previously pointed out, is already terrifying and dangerous enough.
Load-shedding has really made me realise just how much we take electricity for granted when we have it all the time.
But what's all this got to do with the Sri Lankan president, you must be wondering. Well, Sapna and Rabi live in the same district as the Prime Minister of Nepal. For a long while after load-shedding was first introduced, their district was exempt, until too many complaints surfaced from the rest of the city. But the official visit of the president of Sri Lanka, who is staying with the Prime Minister, means we've had two full days of electricity, something so appreciated that it makes it worth a blog post.
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