Bumper Brownout!

Phew! Today was definitely a hot one and mostly because of the lack of air con I encountered!  There have been a lot of brownouts lately in Gensan and I've heard some musings that it may be due to the enormous mall opening recently and sucking up all the power.  We can't be sure but they're certainly more often and for longer than they were at the beginning.  One Sunday we had no electricity for 6 hours!

Anyway, the reason they are called brownouts, rather than blackouts, is because they only affect parts of the city at a time.  Apparently here a blackout is if the whole city goes out. I don't think we've experienced that yet. The brownouts 'move' around the city so one area will lose electricity then when it comes back on, another area will have a brownout.  I must have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time today as I have been in a brownout since 9.30 this morning until now, 6pm!

I arrived at the school this morning to a brownout, then arrived at the college this afternoon to a brown out, then arrived home to a brownout! It was literally following me around the city! Or maybe I was following it, certainly NOT intentionally. At the college I couldn't use my usual classroom as it's right in the heart of the college, no windows so it was pitch black.  After wandering around the campus with my little group like nomads for about 10 minutes and getting removed from a classroom we'd adopted, we finally settled into the ICT room.  At least it was light and cool in there.

I was sad to hear when I got the the college that today was the last day with this current group of Hotel & Restaurant Management students. Next week I will have midwifery students for five sessions. It was a bit of a surprise for them and me both because we were all geared up for another five sessions and we had presentations prepared and more lessons etc. but it wasn't to be. They were a lovely group, most of them Christians which was really nice, as that would be unusual in the UK in such a small group.

So all in all a good but sweltering day, my fan came in very handy!  I used to be self conscious about fanning myself in front of a class but that had to go out the window! :-D  So, moaning over.....there is an upside to brownouts.  It is like a 'snow day' at home.  You can't do much so you just make the most of being able to relax! :-)

These are posters that have been put up in the school outside my classroom.  They show how the pupils in each class ranked following their last exams.  I felt really sorry for one little boy as he was visibly upset after seeing his position :-/  I can't imagine EVER seeing this in a school in the UK.....I can just imagine the uproar from the parents!