Lights Out Ghana: A Tale Of The Have & The Have Nots
Friday, 28 January 2022
By: TB Obwoge
Depending on where you are at the time, the responses to ‘lights out’, is different. A low to loud hand clapped, with cheering started once in Santa Maria as the guys were enjoying a football match. Some even yelp out loudly, as the Hill Top went black.
People gathered outside, they drank, talked, laughed of course they weren’t happy as the game was just getting good.
The noise was not in celebration at all it wasn’t always the normal response either.
Last night (Monday) in the early evening hours the lights went out with an almost audible click. Within moments the engine noise of those with huge, half a million dollar homes on my road fired up the generators. My building not only went silent as a cemetery but as dark as freshly laid tar.
Tuesday morning lights are still out. It is hot, unbearably hot for those Americans that claim to love heat, I would love to watch them bake in the West African sun. This heat, thick with choking humidity is the worst I’ve ever felt in my life. As I type this my heads spinning, there is no relief from it unless you have AC, which is useless right now.
My limbs are like wet noodles. my head hurts like a pressure/sinus headache, I’m weak. I’ve drank plenty of water but that never seems like enough today, right now. For the wealthier ones they just simply switch to their generators for comfort.
A few years ago between traveling back & forth to Kenya, then Ghana I invested in a few gadgets to try to ease the burdens in Africa living. Now electricity isn’t an everyday issue in all areas of…
