Coping with brownouts

The past several months have been much drier than usual due to an El Nino. This island normally gets most of its power from hydroelectric sources but this year the water levels were extremely low resulting in power shortages. In this city they have managed to organize the brownouts such that you can sort of plan your day. The city is divided into three groups which have a rotating schedule of brownouts, not to the exact time but the general part of the day. In my part of town on Mondays and Tuesdays we are scheduled for afternoon brownout of 2-3 hours duration. Wednesdays and Thursdays we have them in the early evening. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays we have them in the morning.

It does interfere with work since it’s too dark inside our house to read or see the computer keyboard, and my second monitor doesn’t work. If we have a brownout in the morning I often use that time to go shopping or do errands because the malls all have their own generators. Or I might go to our office which is on a different rotation schedule. There I can check the mail or photocopy or use the library. When we have an afternoon brownout that is when it is the most difficult because it is not only dark but also very hot. Sometimes if I’m sleepy I take a nap on the cool tile floor. Or else I just sit and sweat and listen to a pre-downloaded mp3 radio broadcast or sermon while playing a mindless computer game until the power comes on. When the power goes off in the evening, I light 3-4 candles, power up the mp3 player and hike laps around the kitchen and living room for an hour.

It has been raining again recently so we hope that eventually the reservoirs will fill up and the power will become more regular.

BREAKING: They just announced a change in the schedule. To be more "equitable" the schedule will change every week. Sigh! Just get a system figured out and they go and change it again.

The first "automated" elections

Two weeks ago was election day for president, vice-president, senators, congressmen, and locally, mayor. It was the first time they used what they called “automated voting”. Each polling station had a machine that looked like a fax machine. Voters blackened in ovals next to the candidates of their choice on the ballot cards and then fed the ballot into the optical scanning machine which was supposed to count the votes and store the info on a flash card. It was then supposed to contact home via satellite with the counts every hour or so. Apparently there were numerous problems with the machines. Some had battery problems, some didn’t work at all, some were just slow and ballots had to be fed in multiple times before they were finally accepted, and there just didn't seem to be enough of them to handle the numbers of people quickly..

It seemed that the print was small for some older folk, and so some brought a grandchild with them to help them cast their vote.

One friend went at 7:30am and after multiple problems with the machine plus the slowness of the whole procedure, didn’t actually get to cast her ballot until nearly 7pm. It sounds like a lot of people gave up and went home without voting so that was frustrating.

Sounds like vote-buying was rampant too, especially by the Opponent of the Mayor. People reported being offered round trip fare if they would sign a list saying they would vote for the Opponent of the encumbant Mayor. Workers were reported as going door to door even on election day, offering up to $22 per household to vote for the Opponent. In some neighborhoods the Opponent was sponsoring roast pork parties on election day. Others whose kids had scholarships thru the gov’t (the Opponent has been a national congressman for a long time and has sponsored many scholarships) were threatened that the scholarships would be cut off if they didn’t vote for the Opponent. It was also reported that in certain precincts the ballots listed two candidates with the same last name as the encumbant Mayor. This was done in the last election as a way of splitting the vote for those who didn’t read the whole name carefully. The interesting thing is, though, that if you download the official ballot form off the national election site, there is only one candidate listed as having that last name. So when was the second name added????

Privacy isn't quite what it is in some other places. Most of the polling places were at schools. People were sitting at school desks in a classroom, several at a time filling in their ballots. A friend said that the print was so small she didn't think anybody could see what another person was filling out. But some people said that at their polling station there were people looking in the windows and they were afraid that, since they had accepted money to vote for the Opponent, those people might see if they didn't vote for the Opponent and so felt intimidated. At other polling places there were curtains at the windows and people felt secure.

The perfidy of people. A number of people reported having accepted money from a candidate but having no intention of voting for him. In a way I kind of felt sorry for some of the candidates passing out candies, t-shirts, snacks, and even cash and hearing people say oh yes, they were going to vote for them and then here comes the election and they lose big time. Then again they aren't supposed to be engaging in vote buying.

There were no reports of violence in this city – though I did hear of one guy who got so frustrated he tried to smash the voting machine. Police pulled him away and then he turned and broke a window so they hand-cuffed him and took him off somewhere. In other parts of the country there were some reports of grenades and gunfire used to scare off voters lined up.

There were daily updates on the status of the presidential candidates but it was a few days before they announced the results of the mayoral candidacy. Apparently the local election committee didn’t want to release any info until all precincts have reported. Eventually it was revealed that the Opponent garnered about 35% of the votes and the Mayor’s daughter won 65% of the vote. (The Mayor has to step down for a term because the law mandates a limit of three terms in a row. He can run again in 3 years time. So in this election he ran for vice-mayor while his daughter, who is the current vice-mayor, ran for mayor.)

Green energy woes

It seems that we really are having an El Nino this year. We seem to alternate years, nothing normal anymore, just El Ninos and La Ninas. It hasn't been raining daily like it usually does and we have had to water the plants a couple times a week lately. We are told that the lake and river which provide almost all the power on this island are very low and so power has been cut back. Luckily this city has an old 40 MW Bunker-fuel plant as well that has helped pick up some of the slack. It is located less than a kilometer from our place and it has been running almost constantly for the last 3 weeks. It is extremely noisy and even at this distance there is a low pitched background thrumming that kind of gives you a headache after awhile. In fact, one of our neighbors is out house hunting right now because he can't sleep. He says not only is it noisy but it shakes the ground and even using ear plugs and closing windows and using air conditioner don't help. So they are scouting out a neighborhood out past the airport.

Today the power company said the allotment of hydro-electric power has been cut even more so they will have to start rotating brownouts of about 30 minutes duration. The local generator can be cranked up to 53 MW temporarily and when it does it REALLY gets noisy! But it can't sustain that level so eventually it drops back to 40MW and the noise subsides - a little.

So much for our green energy.

Matchless Matches

One of the things that hasn't ceased to amaze me is the matches you can get here. They are small, even wooden matches and actually have very little material in the match head. But they light first time EVERY time! This box is nearly empty and the strikable sides of the box are still in pristine shape.

In the second of my worlds, there are several brands of matches but the best is Rainbow matches. Even so, they don't all light. Sometimes the head breaks off and goes sizzling off in some crazy direction. (My face or arms have been burned more than once by flying match heads.) And usually the sides of the box wear out from repeated striking long before the matches are all gone.

But then there is Brand X. In the village market, there are always a couple of guys going around selling three boxes of Brand X matches for 15 cents. They are very agressive, they shove the matches in your basket and hold out their hand hoping to intimidate you into paying for the worst matches on earth. These matches are a royal pain to have to use. I have more than once used over half a box to light one candle. They break, the stuff they are coated with is uneven and seems to be very fire resistant. A single match usually needs to be struck multiple times before it finally lights. In the process of striking, matches frequently break, and the rough stuff in the side of the box gets shiny (and useless) from use. Many matches never do light no matter what you do. Some do light but don't stay lit long enough to get a candle burning. I avoid Brand X like the plague. The only thing they are good for is tinder for a fire - if you light the fire with something else.

Torticollis and cell phones

It appears that in this state there aren’t any laws about cell phones and driving because I certainly have noticed a lot of drivers do use them. One needs to be more on the alert for inattentive drivers than ever before. I have followed cars which were having a hard time staying in their lane and then suddenly were driving fine. The driver must have ended his/her call. Several time I have seen cars in the far left lane suddenly zoom across multiple lanes of traffic to exit on the right by drivers yakking on cell phones. When you see drivers whose mouths are moving they may not be singing or talking to themselves – most likely they are talking on a cell phone - and that’s a sign to watch out! Another sign is torticollis: abnormal postures and movements of the head. If you see a driver with their head bent to their shoulder, look out!

Yesterday while I was walking, a poodle puppy came bounding out to greet me. His owner was a woman with a crooked head who walked a bit like Lurch as she tried to call the puppy back. I thought she had torticollis or maybe left-sided weakness from a stroke or something as she seemed unable to reach for the pup with both hands and her head was oddly bent to the left resting on her shoulder. Every time I started walking again the puppy ran back towards me so I finally stopped to wait for the woman to capture her pet. It took me a few minutes to realize she was talking on a cell phone gripped between her head and shoulder. She didn’t have torticollis after all!

My sister commented in a public restroom about the need for cell phone etiquette and soon we were in a lively conversation with several other ladies on the topic. They complained of interrupted conversations as people grab for their phones, phones ringing in meetings, in church, people shouting into phones in stores, elevators, startling you, intruding in your space and forcing you to hear their one-sided conversations. Or people start talking and you think they are talking to you but aren’t.

At least people around here don’t seem to text as much. People talk as they walk but I haven't yet seen anybody out crossing streets while texting!

Rumblings

A friend from the second of my worlds texted yesterday morning and said they had just had a strong earthquake. She had been out in the rice field spraying when it hit. She said there was a loud rumble with it and it was so strong it knocked her to her knees. She said the local elementary school kids were outside at the time having a flag ceremony and when the quake hit they just scattered, running home crying. Schools were cancelled the rest of the day. She didn't have any news at that point as to any structural damage or whether the hot springs in the next village burst open again.

Amazing what you can do with modern technology - I looked it up right away on the internet at IRIS Seismic and there it was already posted, a 5.7 with a center 20km south of town - just about exactly where my friend lives! So I texted her the info. Two friends in the nearby town said they were okay, that schools had been cancelled but people weren't panicking and running for the hills in fear of a tsunami or anything. No further news so apparently all is well.

Gadget Test

This is an attempt to add some fun and games:



If you don't like that, what about this:

Technology

Every time I come back there is more new technology. This time it is computers on the phone. I have called places and computers answered. My years in Southeast Asia have apparently destroyed my accent. The computers usually can’t understand what I say. But that means that I usually eventually get to talk to a real person. Sometimes the voice just reads you a long list of buttons to push, after which another computer voice may tell you to push more buttons and so on. I have even been called by computers asking me to press one for English or two for Spanish. I just hang up. I guess if it doesn’t know whether I use English or Spanish, then it probably isn’t a computer I know. 

I noticed that the announcer at the SW airport is the same as the announcer on the Weather Channel. Maybe that’s the one they call Microsoft Sam. He is everywhere.

This is one of those changes that maybe isn’t so good. For example, if you are late paying your credit card, Sam will call you all day long until he gets you. He is not fooled by answering machines. He won’t leave a message until he has called at least 2 dozen times. Then he will finally leave a message. But he doesn’t tell you what he wants. He expects YOU to call some number and remember some impossibly long pin number to retrieve the message.

Maybe those call centers in India aren’t such a bad thing after all.

Cellphones

The friend with the toothache has survived. She took a different antibiotic and that solved the problem. The reason I didn’t hear anything is because she lost her cellphone. She had it in a shallow pocket and thinks it fell out somewhere on the way to town.

Cellphones are definitely part of life in this the third of my worlds. To not own a cellphone is almost worse than not having a television. Texting is by and far the most popular use of cellphones. It is very cheap and you can buy refill cards or electronic loads at any shop. Even low income folk who can barely afford to hold body and soul together will often have a cellphone. People buy fancy skins and cases for them. They are constantly looking for new ringtones and screensavers. As technology improves many now have the capacity to send multimedia images back and forth and many people now have phones with cameras. Malls have recharging stations. Photoshops have machines for downloading and editing camera pictures.

I went cellphone shopping last week to try to get a phone that can be connected to a laptop by cable and can act as a modem for downloading email. I was amazed at the fancy PDAs which also happen to have phones. Or the top notch digital video cameras with photo editing software that also happen to have phones, or the tiny music factories complete with speakers, headphones, and additional memory cards that also happen to have phones. I finally found a relatively low end phone at 1/3 the cost without most of the bells and whistles – though it does have a plain camera and ear plugs and FM radio capability. (Like I really need to walk around all day with a cellphone plugged into my head!!!)

I was indeed able to get it connected as a modem for my laptop and downloaded email. On my next trip to the second of my worlds I hope to get it to connect there as well. (I will need to buy a local SIM card, but it should be possible to connect as long as the signal is strong enough.) It’s not very fast but it is adequate for getting email. And it is at least as fast as the internet cafes in the town nearest the village. I am looking forward to being able to sit in a field hut in the middle of a rice paddy and download email! The marvels of modern technology....

Unfixable Things

Have you ever had one of those unfixable things? Like a stereo that plays just fine at the repair shop but constantly clicks itself off at home? Or what about bats living under the 2nd floor eaves that leave lovely brown streaks aaaaall the way down the white walls, despite all efforts to get rid of them. (They LOVE light! Putting up a screen makes them even happier – they can hang from the outside plus go inside too!) Or what about a leak in the neighbor’s upstairs bathroom that drips or rains down into your dining room. You know, the kind that gets “fixed” with bubble gum and every now and then the gum gets knocked off or gets old and falls off and the leak starts again? Or the situation with another neighbor – every time it rains his garage gets filled with dirty water. Not just rain water, it comes complete with shampoo satchets, soap wrappers, rice, and other delicacies from people’s kitchens and laundries (though at least so far no TP!). It has been “fixed” many times, but yesterday they were out there again scooping water out in buckets.

In the grand scheme of things, what is the purpose of those unfixables? To build character? To bring in more income to the blood pressure drug companies? To ensure tenants don’t stay too long? To test creativity? To give you topics of conversation to try out at boring parties? How would YOU deal with it? Would you just enjoy your stereo whenever it intermittantly feels like playing? Or would you go out and buy a new one? Would you paint your house brown since you can’t get rid of the bats? Would you buy stock in the bubble gum factory since the leak seems to be unfixable? Or would you stock up on buckets? Or open a swimming pool? Maybe we should paint our dining room wall to look like a water fall. Then whenever it leaks again it would blend right in. But I still haven’t figured out what to advise the neighbor with the flooding garage...

ting-ting-ting

Remember those musical greeting cards? You open them up and a small disc embedded in the card starts ting-ting-tinging Happy Birthday or Jingle Bells or something. Some Asian entrepenuer began inserting those ting-ting-tings into Christmas decorations. A few years ago I was in the village in church. The pastor had gotten some ornament with lights that he attached to the pulpit. He'd turn it on during the church service and just let it ting-ting-ting through the whole service. I guess he thought it was just super cool. It drove me crazy. I am sure that I was the only one in the congregation that knew that every tune it played was about Rudolph, or white Christmases, jingle bells, etc. Not exactly fitting for the local climate not to mention the sermons being preached. I avoided services as much as possible that trip. Upon returning to the third of my worlds I discovered that "musical" decorations were on sale here too.

Now my neighbor has put up a whole string of Christmas lights - "musical" ones - ting-ting-tinging outside my window. Did they think to put the ting-ting-ting INSIDE their apartment so they could enjoy it? Oh no. They put it OUTSIDE so I could hear the ting-ting-ting reverberating between the buildings. Not only that, they typically turn it on and then go out for the evening! What's worst of all is that it is a cheapie. It plays only one or two lines each of Jingle Bells, White Christmas, Here Comes Santa Claus, We Wish you a Merry Christmas and then starts over again. Over and over and over and over.........

Am I going crazy?!!! I am considering going over there one of these evenings soon and unscrewing a lightbulb....and if that doesn't work I have scissors.... >:-)

(No, don't worry. you won't see headlines saying I was electrocuted cutting wires. There are other more culturally appropriate ways of trying to deal with it. You know, the third party approach...)