T.I.A. - This Is Africa

8:50AM I hear a knock. I answer the door. A guy hands me a piece of paper. I'm a little baffled as it looks like a flyer some people try to stuff through the half millimeter crack between your car window and the frame of the door whenever you stop at a robot (traffic light). I glance down at the flyer. The guy is still just standing there. I start to read the flyer:

Electricity Interruption

Upgrade & Maintenance work

Please note that the electricity supply will be interrupted on:

Wednesday, 14 January 2009

between 09h00 and 14h00 

At first my brain doesn't quite register the time and date on the flyer. Why would anyone wait until the last minute to inform the residents, since this is, after all, scheduled work. I glance at the messenger. He looks like he expects me to hit him, or at least lash out in some way. He actually cowers ever so slightly. I realize my house is probably not the first place he has been to. As the Danny Archer line from Blood Diamond flickers in the back of my mind, I decide to give the poor guy a break. Most likely not his fault anyway. "Oh, okay," I manage, and after an almost smile the messenger skulks to the next house. 

Eight minutes later the electricity is cut off. I had just enough time to make a pot of coffee, but the laundry will have to stew in its own juices for the next five hours. 

At 2pm my first action is to make a new pot of coffee (I didn't realize all of my thermoses are sailing on the Atlantic, and I never felt the need to rent such an item), and then I sit down to write this complete T.I.A. post, even while knowing that this could just as well have been an 'así es México' post. 

Now I think I'll have to go see what five hours in soapy water do to a load of whites (no pun intended. Really!).