Layt de!

There is a limited mains electricity supply in Freetown, and it is one of the main issues that people believe affects development in Sierra Leone. At Christmas, we were promised electricity… and eventually, it came. Although not to my house.

Most houses get electricity for a few hours each day. But not us. When all my neighbours had their lights blazing, we were still sat with candles. Then one night last week, when I was sitting in my room, reading the newspaper with my torch, the light in my room flicked on and off. I thought I was going mad. Then it happened again. I panicked, I shouted my roommate Kate, and asked her if it was happening upstairs too. No, she said, then 2 minutes later, yes, it was! Cue lots of running around flicking light switches and talking excitedly. Then there is a knock on the door, it’s Ayo, our security guard. He was just doing some checks of the circuit box, has he caused a problem. A problem? No Ayo, you legend. You’ve just fixed our electricity!

OK, so it still doesn’t work everywhere, but now, every couple of days, we get a light and a plug socket in each of mine and Kate’s rooms, lights in the lounge and on the balcony and the odd plug socket here and there. Nothing in Krystle’s room, clearly the wiring still needs some work, and we need to buy some lightbulbs. But we still get excited every time we come home and flick that switch and find light there!

For the people of Sierra Leone of course, this is not enough. An intermittent, unpredictable electricity supply is better than nothing, but it does not make the difference to health and education and industry and security and family life that would be made by a permanent supply. And it’s still only in Freetown (and a couple of big towns in the south).

For me, living without electricity for a few months has been exciting, a novelty, part of the fun. For Sierra Leone, this is one step forward.