Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Great Zanzibar Blackout

Zanzibar, the archipelago of islands off the eastern coast of Tanzania, lost power on December 10, 2009 due to a problem with the main power source that it gets from the mainland (and which runs under ground under the ocean). After briefly coming back on shortly before Christmas, they managed to essentially fry the whole system and thus, 3 months of no electricity and no running water (electricity is needed to pump the water) ensued.

Ameet and Jafari are the two GHC Fellows who live in Zanzibar, and in addition to enjoying none of the amenities of electricity or running water for the last three months (just try sleeping with no fan during the HOTTEST months of the year) they hosted about 12 of us at their house over the holidays and Delite and I last week when we visited. Through it all they retained enough good humor and generosity to show us a great time...and even to fill up water buckets for us:)

Shout out Ameet and Jafari and everyone else in Zanzibar!! Check out Ameet's reflections on the power coming back on.

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