Just before Christmas 2023, there was a massive thunder storm in Harare, Zimbabwe. Coming from Europe, everything in Africa seems oversized, and this thunder storm was no exception. It raged for about a day and multiple lightning strikes could be seen. As per usual, electricity was spotty afterwards and we took the lack of electricity in stride as completely normal. We later found out that a lighting strike had taken out a central power transformator, leaving most of eastern Harare in the dark for several days.

For the days leading up to Christmas, we were a total of seven adults, three children plus staff during the day/night at my in-laws house. Water is pumped in to the house via a borehole, which runs on electricity. Electricty that comes from the power grid, not the solar panels on the roof…​

After day one we were starting to run a bit low on water for flushing the toilets. By day two the flushing was left for as long as possible. By day three we were starting to have real problems with the lack of water as some of the children had started to throw up and we could no longer flush the toilets. By day four I went out to gather rain water and fill every bucket I could find. After that we bought a truck load of water to fill up the water tower (which was leaking horribly), which came on day five. Power was restored on day seven (if I recall correctly).

The local staff had a bit of fun at my expense as I was on waterduty. My dear wife, who is from Zimbabwe, was having a meltdown and demanded we take in to a hotel. It was a pretty amazing experience seeing how quickly everything breaks down, once things like running water, flushing toilets and electricity are no longer available.

I knew from before just how much of a time and energy thief things not working can be. But this was next level. Everything ground to a halt with the pressing issue of fixing access to water. Nothing moved after day two and all energy and focus diverted to discussing how to fix the situation. By day four I was happy to be on water duty, as the access to water finally meant other things started to move forward.

Moral of the story: I LOVE LIVING IN MODERNITY!