Tonight we lost power for a little while, and it reminded me that I wanted to post here about what happened down in Soddo last week. In Addis, we lose power occasionally, but it’s usually very brief and doesn’t inconvenience us too much. In Soddo however, there was a devastating fire last week that burned the local power plant to the ground. What does this mean? Stephanie Hail, one of our colleagues there, said this:
“No power. No light. Without electricity you can’t turn on the lights, charge your cell phone, cook in the oven/stove (unless gas or open fire), charge your computer, use the fridge or freezer, use blow dryers, use water heaters, use washing machines, kettles, microwaves, coffee grinders, watch TV, listen to the radio, no street lights… Now that is the simple stuff.
The biggest issue is that getting water to the town requires electricity. The pumps for the wells require electricity. So if you don’t have electricity what are your options? Generators. Sounds like a simple plan, but it is an extremely expensive plan. It takes about 200-300 liters of gas PER DAY to run the government hospital or the Christian hospital for 24 hour period. So that comes out to about $235-$350 a day just for electricity. The good news is that the Christian hospital has a well, so there is water...”
The hospital is rationing the power from the generator to limit the cost. As a result, the docs that live on the compound are limited to 4 hours of electricity per day – 2 in the morning and 2 in the evening. Water heaters are not being used. Currently it is believed that the electrical plant may be rebuilt in 1-2 months. That’s a lot of cold showers.
If you would like to donate to the hospital to help offset the costs of the generator, go to this link.
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