Reminders of a Third World Country

South Africa often likes to think of itself as a First World country. Unfortunately this isn't the case. Every now and then we get a gentle reminder that we aren't First World, and that we're deceiving ourselves if we think we are.

So last night we had another reminder.

There was a power outage in our part of Muizenberg last night, from just before 20:00 (that's 8pm for you Americans) until about 23:30 (11:30pm). We looked outside, and it looked like Muizenberg town itself had electricity, and places further north also had electricity. It was just Capricorn Beach that seemed to be without. None of the other complexes in the area had any lights on.

Hannah and I lit up candles, and then debated on what to do. There wasn't really much we could do. Hannah bemoaned the fact that there was not enough light to read a book, and I bemoaned the fact that no electricity meant no computers or Internet. Fortunately, we had already made and eaten supper.

We decided to take a nap while waiting for the electricity to come back on. Eventually, we just decided to go to bed, as it was getting late. Just as we settled down, however, the power came back on. How typical!