Image is mine
These past few days have been hell for me. I'm even wondering where I draw strength from to function mentally.
I have a cooking tradition which not only helps me save time but it also saves money, unfortunately carrying on with this tradition when electricity is epileptic, is inviting the worst.
Usually, with electricity, if there's no power at home, there's usually power at the office which gives me the confidence to carry on with my bulk cooking.
But then, there's that saying about over confidence and counting your chickens before they hatch. So Sunday came and as usual I got on with my bulk cooking, I made stew and I made soup and I smiled with satisfaction that the month is set.
I can finally utilize my time to myself and go about my business without worrying about hunger. I portioned the food, gave my sister her share and then took the remaining to the office and arranged them in the freezer.
Everything was going well and pretty fine too till three days later, the Gas turbine at the company yard shut down. I wasn't panicking because I know it's an immediate fix but then we started going 3 hours without electricity. I'd occasionally walk down stairs to the reception to ask for a situation report and all I get is that they are walking on it.
I still kept calm because my food was in the freezer and frozen too. I was confident and so I closed for the day. The next day, I went to work in high spirits as usual, very sure that power had been restored. I got into the yard and the first thing that greeted me was generator sound left right and center. My heart skipped a bit but I quickly shook it off as nothing, probably they are still working on the electricity for others but ours would be fixed I consoled myself since our block was the one generating the electricity.
I got to the office and everywhere was dark, electricity had still not been restored. I consoled again, probably they are doing test running.
Since it's morning and operation has started, surely the light will come up in no time. But I was in for a big disappointment as all I kept hearing was that they are working on it.
I checked on my food and saw that the ones in the freezer were still blocked a bit, but the ones in the refrigerator weren't doing so well. I waited a bit to confirm the situation with the electricity and all I got was that they were working on it.
Not seeing any progress, I closed for the day and carried some of the food home for consumption. Throughout last week, electricity never came up. This saw me taking all my food home for consumption and some did get bad.
I felt really sad and got really upset. The following week I got a call that the light had been restored. This saw me resuming my bulk cooking again, but this time, I made moimoi and native jollof rice to last a week instead of multiple weeks.
I got to the office excited only for the electricity to trip off again. I carried all this food back home and by the next day, all the moimoi I made got bad.
Up till this very moment I'm still traumatized to go down that road with food. Is it the money wasted? Or is it the time expended that I am never going to get back for other productive ventures. Infact as I'm writing this story, I am holding back tears.
I hate wastage and quite unfortunate there wasn't anything I could do to salvage the situation.