load shedding

So, here in Kathmandu we have load shedding. This means official power cuts. It seems to be fairly predictable. I get mine every sunday from 5pm - 7.30pm, and the timing is spot on. So you know when the majority of the powercuts are coming and that is fine.

However, today I discovered that as we are heading into the dry season most of Nepal's hydro electric power stations are at too low a level to work and so load shedding will be increased. As of this week we will have no power between 5am-8am 1x a week and 5pm-7.30pm 2x per week (i know not what days)... so thats ok i guess 8 hrs of powerouts per week is fine... but oh no it shall get worse, apparently by the end of the month we will reach 40hours of scheduled power cuts per week (eeek) - and this is announced by the national electricty company, and it happened last year too... so seems fairly reasonable to expect it will happen! It seems Nepal cant buy more power from India as the systems arent totally compatible, and so we shall have to wait for the rainy season I suppose until full power is resumed!

I have a lantern and many candles and wine-bottles-holding-candles and candle holders so all shall be well... and my shower is heated by gas and i cook on gas. But you know it seems strange to be in a capital city with so many power outs... I remember in mongoland in the winter it got rediculous - we had more power cuts than power - but i wasnt in the capital city then, and the problem wasnt suply, rather a dodgy power station. There is a lesson here somewhere, and I guess it is that we in the west are so used to 24hr electricity, that it befuddles us when we dont have it... stumbling around in the dark, feeling cold, no TV, computers, music and so many other electrical appliances that we use etc... however if some predictions about the future are realised it is something that people in the UK may have to deal with in my lifetime... interesting.