A junction where the lights are always on in Ghana!

Friday, October 12, 2007

Got Lights? You Bet!!

The Lights Are Back!!

And it happened after a series of strange events if you ask me. After not bothering to switch on the lights in my house to avoid the dissappointment of not having power, I was pleasantly surprised to read in the Graphic in broad daylight that the power outages were over. One might wonder how come I did not hear it from someone on the streets. The truth is in true Ghana-man fashion, Ghanaians had gotten used to the power situation, had adjusted all activities to ensure maximum use of the sun light (and not only making hay :-) and had simply stopped griping about the power outages. Life after all has to go on.

But to go back to the strange events:

1. A group of people converged on the Volta Lake at Akosombo and had a prayer session
2. A follow-up all night prayer session was held at the Independence Square to make sure the first one went to the right quarters.
3. Still no power for a month and the power bills were higher than when we had power!
4. Then Cote dÍvoire decided to allow Ghana to import power from them. Why now after all the sweltering nights and sultry days?
5. Then the rains started coming down. In no small amounts. At the expense of the already marginalised Northern Region who I swear consume less than 1% of the power generated by the dam. The lives that were lost, farms drowned and infrastructure washed away did not even prompt the prayer warriors to get back on their knees to pray for salvation of the poor poor folks up North.

I guess the power was back up and they were busy catching up on their TV programs and lighted night time activities.

This blog is dedicated to the lives that were sacrificed to get the power back to Ghana.