Electricity frustration

Greetings, guys!

Most non-Nigerians might not be able to relate to this...
There's a specific kind of pain that comes when you see public electricity in your neighborhood, yet there’s none in your house or compound. The pain is so real.

On Thursday afternoon, around 2:00 PM, there was electricity in our area, and I quickly decided to put some clothes in the washing machine. After setting the machine to wash, I went on to iron clothes. Not up to five minutes later, the electricity went out. The work I planned to do wasn’t something I had in mind to complete with fuel and a generator, so I had hoped to take advantage of the public electricity. However, I was left disappointed. I decided to let the clothes remain inside the washing machine, hoping that power would soon be restored so I could continue washing.

I waited and waited until evening, around 6:00 PM, and still, there was no light. Eventually, I decided to step out to get an item. The moment I walked out, I saw bulbs shining brightly from different homes and shops. There was electricity outside, but we had none in our house! I asked some people when their electricity was restored, and they told me it had been back since the afternoon. This meant it was restored at the same time ours was cut off.

I felt so weakened by the news. This electricity I had been waiting and hoping for had been available in neighboring houses, yet not in ours.

After buying what I needed, I sluggishly returned home, turned on the generator I had wanted to avoid using, and completed the washing with it.

Even as I type this, around 7:35 PM, the electricity is still very much available in the neighboring streets, while our street remains in total blackout. This isn’t the first time we’re facing this issue. The transformer that supplies electricity to our street is never as powerful or reliable as the ones supplying other streets.

Thanks for reading.

Photo used is mine