1 I
had been at site about 2 weeks and had gotten used to the electricity dropping
as well as the cell phone network. That’s why I didn’t think it was
particularly strange when the electricity and network were down for two days
and it was expected that it would be down for another 3-4 days. We heard that
there was a large electrical plant in Grootfontein that supplied the
electricity to the region and that people had broken into the plant and stolen copper
bolts that held the electrical towers up. When it rains in Kavango it really
pours and as this is the start of the rainy season the electrical towers hadn’t
been tested against wind or rain since the bolts had been taken. The showers
started and eleven towers were knocked out effectively extinguishing all
electricity in the region. The water also runs through electrical power so in
Rundu there was no more running water. Food in the supermarkets started to get old and there was a mad dash to buy all the food before it got old. People living in town were also forced to walk down to the Kavango river to get their water. This is a town of around 80,000 people so the river banks also became very crowded. With our cell
phone network down Peace Corps actually had no idea what was going on in the
Kavango area.
The newspapers in Windhoek left the report
that electricity was out to the 7th page of the newspaper. Mind you
electricity dropping in the Kavango would be equivalent to all the electricity
dropping in the entire west coast of the U.S. Peace Corps only found out about
2 or 3 days in when a volunteer was able to get a text out. So the afternoon
that I was moving into my new house two Peace Corps cars drove into my village
unannounced. I was in my room with all my stuff strewn about when I hear my
friends Tim and Lindsey calling my outside. I get up confused and look outside
and I see them with 6 other volunteers I hadn’t met yet. They greet me then
they start screaming “village invasion!” Then they tell me that the entire
Kavango region was being evacuated and that we needed to go to Rundu and stay at a lodge where there was power and water. I was
convinced for about 5 minutes that they were joking until the head security guy
for Peace Corps sauntered up and confirmed it for me. So I invite everyone into my
completely messy house while Joey the security coordinator gives me a list and
tells me I need to pack everything in it as fast as I can. I get everything
packed and we head out while my counterparts looked on confused. We go through
Rundu which looked like a zombie apocalypse had just gone through it into the
middle of the bush where there was a riverside lodge. We then hang out there
for two nights. It was a great time, there was beer, good food, and I was able
to meet all the volunteers from the previous groups. For a moment Peace Corps
was going to send us to Tsumeb, one of the nicest towns in Namibia, to hang out
for a few more days until the electricity, water, and network came back but on
the second night the power came back and we were shipped back to our towns and
villages. Weird, fun, and an ambiguous experience but that is exactly the way
of Peace Corps.