Loadshedding

One of the more frustrating things about living in Nepal is "load-shedding," or regularly scheduled blackouts. Nepal receives most of its energy from hydroelectric dams, which run at full power during the summer monsoon and gradually lose steam throughout the dry season. As a result, the load-shedding hours gradually (actually, not so gradually) increase, and just recently, were upped to 63 hours without power a week.

In other words, six days a week, there are ten hours without power, and we have one day where the power is only out three hours. Most nights, the power is out from when it gets dark until nine or so. And the power is usually out in the morning as well, which means it's difficult to schedule a hot shower around our electric water heater.

Nepal is second in the world in hydroelectric potential, after Brazil, despite the fact that the entire country is only the size of Arkansas. And yet mismanagement, a poor power grid, a civil war and corruption have all left the country literally in the dark.

We read and cook by candlelight in the evenings. As an environmentalist, a big part of me likes my low-impact lifestyle. The water heater is on at most a half-hour any given day, as opposed to 24 hours a day for most homes in the U.S. But 63 hours a week is beyond the point of inconvenience. It makes me realize how much our modern world is reliant on electricity. We are approaching the winter solstice, and never has the longest night seemed so long as it does now.