At different times in our lives, we have all experienced blackouts which have lasted for varying lengths of time and we can all agree that it's one of the worst things to happen in this digital age.
Experiencing a blackout when it's not expected hurts on a different level and the worst part is there's nothing to be done except to complain to the power holding company and then wait for their response which would most definitely take forever before power would be restored.
MY EXPERIENCE WITH BLACKOUTS...
This happened as soon as I moved into the hostel at the beginning of the session.
Before I moved in, there was always power and water and I was happy that I would not have issues concerning electricity because there would always be constant light in the school.
That was my thought and I had to learn the hard way.
Three days after I moved in, light went off while there was a downpour and I thought after the rain power would return but it didn't. I thought it'd come the next day but it didn't, soon days turned to weeks and weeks turned to a month with not even a wink of light in the cold bulbs.
It was traumatizing.
I couldn't do anything with my phone because it was dead most of the time and I didn't know who to give my phone to charge for me outside school because I don't know anyone out of school and so my only option was to wait for any opportunity that'd present itself for me to power my phone.
The school authorities promised us a generator during the blackout and we all thought it was going to be like those in other hostels, the kinds that is used in banks but the school authorities got us a regular generator to power up a big building. I wasn't surprised when the generator failed to power up the ground floor let alone the first and second floor because the generator was actually too small for such a big building.
Before the generator was used to pump water only for the building, we had to carry our water gallons and trek to the nearest hostel to get water that we'd use and the nearest hostel wasn't quite near coupled with the heavy gallons that we had to carry. I had never been more stressed in my life.
This went on for a month, no electricity and water was not easily accessible and it was so stressful. Students were already planning to move out if something wasn't done about the situation quickly and different rumours were flying around about how the university owed the electricity company a huge sum of money which they hadn't paid and so they decided to disconnect the school.
I didn't believe that for a second.
Soon, the generator was used to provide water for the building and later on power was restored after a month and some weeks of darkness. It was a night of jubilation in the hostel the night power came back on, girls screamed their lungs out and danced and sang. We really deserved it because we had gone through a lot.
It was a relief to finally enjoy electricity and so far, so good there's been constant electricity ever since.
