18^th February,2015

Electricity is not something we think about most days, that is unless we don’t have it. In the west there is a nice orderly system for dealing with power outages. If it is just your house a nice guy from the power company treks out to fix the problem the same day and is all apologetic about any inconvenience, if it is the neighbourhood they will be up on the poles and looking at the wires to remove the obstruction as soon as they can. Rarely is it the city that looses power, since “that only happens in some freak accident” or a “strike from mother nature”.

When you walk down a street in the west you barely even recognize the power lines unless a bird sitting on the wires poops on you. No for the most part they are tidy, up high or underground, so when you walk down the street at night it is no big deal to walk the same way you would during the day; and when you walk up the path to your home the motion sensors easily do their job and turn on the light, we don’t give it the time of day because that is what is supposed to happen.

It’s a bit different here. On this side of poverty awareness is key to staying alive and not being strangled by the wires that droop to shoulder height along the foot path, during the rainy time it can be shocking watching some exposed wires dance in a puddle. When you move from one house to another, the sockets and wires are just part of the furniture. In the next place you join all the other neighbours who have amassed a wad of wires to the lamppost, so even when the electricity is on at night the light on the street eeks out on to the road inhibited by the tangled mass dangling in front, around behind and beside.

It’s these lampposts that have got me thinking. One cause for poverty is said to be the lack of access to systems; not that i think this is even a main reason for poverty here but the electricity is barely a system, and I am living in the city. There is a basic structure, but even the middle class don’t have consistent access. I was talking with a friend and she expressed how she likes the florescent lighting. I was at first surprised—who would prefer the sterile, flickering light of a florescent light but it seems to be the preference around here, so I asked her why. She told me that in the villages (and edges of the city) they use candle light, here we have electricity and the florescent lights give more light. More light means longer working hours; longer working hours mean we can make enough for the day. Form my privileged point I saw I was looking at preference rather that practicalities.
Electricity or no, work starts early and continues until late around here and I again see that the tangle of wires on the lamppost outside sheds only a sliver of light on the reasons poverty is here.