Shedding Load

Our home dome is unbelievably nice. It actually consists of a large central dome, which houses the living and dining areas, and four offshoot domes comprising the bedrooms, kitchen, and bathrooms. We have all the modern amenities, except electricity, telephone, and internet. This, it turns out, is a new set of domes built across the road from the orphanage and the old visitor dome (that did have internet). Hence the blogging delay. My apologies.

Adding to the power difficulties, it turns out that: (a) Johannesburg is apparently the most lightening-hit city in the world (so far it has been sunny every day with thunderstorms every afternoon), causing daily power outages; and (b) South Africa is suddenly in the throes of frequent electricity shortages, causing surges whenever power returns. Eskom, the national power utility, schedules sweeping outages they call "load shedding." I actually saw this in the New York Times the week before I left, but they reported the outages as "scheduled," whereas no one here is aware of any schedule or geographic pattern to the load shedding. Oh well, Citronella candles keep the mosquitoes slightly at bay.

I could get used to this life - sleeping with a sheet and a fan, sipping cool wine in the dark with a background of radio and crickets, drying our clothes outside and cooking all our meals. I might have done well in the 1800s, for a month anyway. Of course, we also have a housekeeper, Elizabeth, who comes almost every day to clean and do laundry (but alas, not dishes). Like I said, not too shabby.

For a tour of our domes, please see slideshow below. If it goes too fast for you to read the captions, click "pause" in the beginning so you can control it yourself with the arrow buttons. Let me know of any problems!