Winter blues are worse without elctricity

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Friday July 9, 2010 00:00

With the help of electricity, it is so easy to do everything in just an hour every morning without suffering the biting cold. I am sure you are aware of the frustration, inconvenience and interruptions that power cuts bring in our lives. 

You struggle to survive that hour or half day of no electricity because you need your warm bath, hot tea and your heater on. Life comes to a complete halt without electricity for some of us. Unfortunately, life without electricity is a reality for many of our brothers and sisters. 

There are homes in Gaborone that go without electricity. But how do they survive the chilly winter? In places like Gaborone, you cannot easily find firewood to make fire to wa  yourself up. How do you keep warm when others can conveniently switch on their electric kettles and have their hot tea?

Mmegi took to the streets of Gaborone for a snappy vox populi. Kelebogile Baliki says life in the city without electricity is not much fun. She says in their home, they use paraffin to cook and warm water for bathing. To light all rooms in their house at night, they need to buy a packet of candles everyday, which costs too much since she does not earn much.

'Even paraffin,' she says. 'Sometimes we don't find it at filling stations and we cannot cook. Sometimes it is not there for a week.' She says that it is a rare thing to get firewood since those who sell it struggle to find it.

Baliki says her mother sells Chibuku, though she has not been doing so since the beginning of winter. 'But Chibuku does not give much profit,' she says. Even on normal days, selling Chibuku is not something you can do for a living.'

Another resident of Gaborone, Docus Kealeboga, says it is difficult hunting for a job in the cold of winter. 'Sometimes I have to move from office to office and even go to far away places to look for a job,' she says. 'But if it is cold like this, I just can't go.'

Othamile Moilwa says she has no choice but to get up early in the morning to get to her site where she is working on the Ipelegeng programme. 'We start work at 7 and I have to get up at 5, boil water for my children to bath and go to school before I can leave,' she says. 'We get very cold, but we have no choice.'

If you thought having to get up at five in the morning was terrible, think about Olefile Motsamai who has to get up at 3.30 every morning partly because he is slow? 'I work for a security company in Phakalane,' he says. 'I therefore have to get up early so that they find me ready when they come to fetch me.'