Karine Ardault

POWER - The return

So yesterday I wrote about the general power situation. Here comes better!

At the end of the rainy season, the post supporting the electric cable fell a bit because of all the mud. The electric cables went loose but no major change in the power delivery of the house. It remained like this for 3 weeks and then someone from TANESCO decided that it would be dangerous and cut the line coming to our house in order to repair it. I have to add that our house was the last connected to the line. Consequently it only affected us. One would have expected that thay would have done something not to deprive us of electricity. No, not here. Here people do not like to have no power at night, especially the askari (the guards). Here it lasted three days without power. I think if I have never given any phone call to the landlord and the TANESCO, it would have remained like this forever. But the best is yet to come! As the workers did not want to fix again the post in front of the house, they took a line coming from the back but it was not strong enough. There was not enough intensity to light the neon lights, to use the cooker or the stereo! After many phone calls it was repaired!!

Electricity (of good quality) is a luxury here!

Power

What are we without power? By power I mean electricity! Living in France for a little more than 30 years I never had to think about it. Ok, I can remember when I was a kid experiencing very few SHORT power cuts in the evening during winter months but it had been very sporadic. So in a life where power is everywhere, things are easy: candles are for ornamental purposes, you can cook with your electric oven, watch TV, listen to music, read, write, use your computer and internet, charge the batteries for the camera, the telephone,.... plus it is of a good enough quality that it will not make your adapters blow or kill rather quickly any battery!

I have been in Tanzania for a little more than two years now. If power was something granted in Europe here it is not. December 2005 through June 2006 was awful. Because of the water shortage (most of the electricity here comes from dams) we had power restrictions. At the same time we also had water shortage (That is when I learned to shower with one bottle of mineral water - Ready for camping!) As I am not lucky enough to have a Government member or a Parliament member living close to the house, we experiences a lot of power shortage. For many months we had no power for 12 hours in a row. The Tanzanian electric company, the TANESCO, tried to establish a schedule but it was never followed. Most of the time the power was going out at random time. So life was not easy. How many wasted meals? I did not count, too depressing. It influenced a lot my life. As we have hot water with a water heater (rather old so slow), cold showers were common (and I am too old to enjoy that), trying to read by candle light and so on....

Hopefully (and the power just when off at the second I typed that word) things are better now. Power cuts are less frequent. But the power is still of very bad quality. We have to get stabilizer so the electric appliances don't get too damaged. For the computer and the photo printer (Which is dead after having printed 40 prints by the way - but that is another story) we have a luxury: a UPS, that is some kind of equipment which gives out a power of constant quality and has a small battery that lasts for some 30 minutes for the internet router and our laptops and hard drives!!! Ah, the power just came back!

So having to deal with power issues makes me realize how we are dependent on power: at the office nothing can be done without a computer, here no meal, no TV (that is no CSI, no Dr. House....) no computer but also no possibility to charge phone and camera batteries!!!

Technology is great but when we go on safari for more than a couple of days, we have to go at least to a lodge or a camp with power to charge the batteries of the cameras. Technology is great but the problem is that we cannot live without it and without power now. It is different from an addiction. Is it slavery?

My art

With all the supplied I have bought and brought back to Tanzania I can now make art. So I did a few things lately and I even had the time to take some pictures this afternoon. Whaou, my second post in a day....

"Bingo-Life": I could not resist using this bingo card. Actually it was a double card so I cut it and only used the bottom part. I wanted to do something in the spirit of the 60s. I cut out the picture from a postcard.

This one is an ATC made with some metallic tape and with alcohol inks for the background. It was a test.

This is my real first creation. It was a wooden 3D frame I had bought last year. I really like the contrast between the seriousness of the woman and the smiling and facetious face of the man. The background is painted on acrylic on cardboard and canvas. There is some black string attached. The dress of the woman is made of mosquito net fabric folded. The rest is music sheets glued. And there is this small heart charm. I though it would also make an interesting contrast.

And for now this is my masterpiece! Hee hee. I had bought some wood frames without glass for 2000 Tshs each, that is US$ 1.75 more or less. They are just in raw wood. I decided (do not ask me why because I do not know)  to point it with walnut ink and I am very happy of the result. The background is made of teared paper glued directly on the wood. I burned the edges of the picture. Again, to contrast with the seriousness of the person, I put him a crown. I embellished the frame with a few doodads. The tag is a chipboard painted with acrylic golden paint and saying: "I am the king". A ribbon was added.... hee hee. like it a lot!

Wonderful artist, earthquake, & pictures

If you want to see very nice art with a strong meaning, go and read (and look) at Judy's blog: Red velvet. I put a direct link to her latest creation Numbers. It is wonderful, plus she explains why she chose to use this material instead of another, why she did that or this. I really like her work and she looks to be a wonderful person too!

The Earth shacked again in Arusha last night at around 9 p.m. local time. Magnitude 5.0... not a big one (furniture and frames not swinging) but strong enough so I can feel myself vibrating!

Benoît was supposed to have a short day and come back to Arusha around 1 p.m.... well, he is stuck overnight in the bush. It is not a bad place but it was NOT planned (if the girls from the office can read that! and please read between the lines also!!!). And tomorrow, he will not be home before 6 p.m.... grrr

I worked a bit on my pictures yesterday night so here are a few.

This is an African spoonbill. The picture was taken back in June in the Tarangire National Park.

Also in Tarangire, a landscape. I forced a bit on the contrast but nothing was added to the picture!

This picture was not supposed to finished in back & white and I did a test and I really liked it like that. What do you think?

What is this? Elephant skin taken from quite close. It was a blurry and the colors were not nice so before deleting the pictures I put in in Black & White to see... well...  It is kind of abstract but it does not look that bad so I decided to keep it.

Lonely elephant

Not been really happy with my pictures lately. Though here is a picture I took in Tarangire National Park in June 2007.

That's all for today!

Art - ATC

This is my second ATC....  I wanted to do something asian. I scanned it and the colors are not very nice. The golden elements do not appear to golder.... hmmm... maybe taking a picture with the camera would be better.

Did a few other stuffs lately. I have to scan them or take pictures of them and put them of the blog.

Earthquakes

Arusha is located in a volcanic region near the rift valley and earthquakes are a risk. My first earthquake in Arusha was in December 2005. I was in my office on the 7th floor of the AICC building. The building did swing, there were a few new cracks on the walls, we evacuated and that's it. But this month, it was more than one quake and they were strong enough to wake me up at night. There were about a dozen of earthquakes from 12 to 19 July. This time when earthquakes happened during daytime I was in my office which is now situated on the 3rd floor of the same building. It did not swing as much as on the 7th floor... but still. people got panicked! Myself, I took the time to grab my handbag and my hard drive (Hey I have all my work in there!). Some people were pushing others in the stairs and then just stopped when they were outside... surrounded by three seven-story buildings in concrete! Ah. The most serious one was of a magnitude of 5.9.... Interesting! I was woken-up twice by the bed moving and making noise.

I thought animals would be panicking but no. Cuddle just stay in his basket and Muffin kept sleeping...

Masai Wedding

Our friends Rebecca and Ezra got married on 14 July. They are both pilots for Flying Medical Service in Arusha.

Here are a couple of pictures of the masai women who came to dance and sing and of some of the flowers. It was a very nice wedding!

Mondays....

Who loves monday morning? me... most of the time!

Found that site the other day: The visual Dictionary. Quite an interesting project!

Here is another picture I took went we went to Tarangire. It is not so easy to shoot impalas (with a camera of course!) as they are particularly shy animals.

For once this one was still.

Quiet week-end

After a somewhat difficult week, I am having a quiet week-end and Benoît even have this sunday off. Yesterday was saba saba (7th of July) so most of the shops were closed. Consequently grocery shopping went fast yesterday morning. Then I went back home and had a quiet afternoon reading, sorting my pictures and webbing (don't know if that last verb exists but I like it).

In the eving we tried this new Mexican restaurant in town. The menu is always fun to read as it is full of spelling mistakes. Though the food was ok but not really generous. We then had a drink at the Greek club and went home.

Today is another quiet day: reading, working on pictures, making art.... having dinner with the FMS folks.

Until next post, here is a picture I took in the villages outside of Arusha a few weeks ago: