Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Battery Power

This morning we arrived at our office and began work as usual. However,
after about 30 minutes, the power suddenly cut out. About 10 minutes
later it came back on for only a split second and then cut out again.
Everyone unplugged their computers for fear of an electrical surge, but
the power still didn't come back on. After a couple hours, our laptop
batteries had just about been drained, so our project manager announced
that we'd go back to the hotel to work, where they have a generator, and
if the power at the office came back on to call us. Our office is in
such a large complex, it would probably be difficult for them to have a
generator to run electricity for the entire place. It's not surprising
though because, what with the weather here--in the upper 90s F (30s C)
everyday--people have the air conditioners running full blast in every
room.
Instead of going back to the hotel, I went with our translator Ary to
the Millennium Shopping Center to exchange some traveler's checks. I was
relieved to see the shopping centers all had generators, and thus were
operating normally. Apparently Manaus is currently in the process of
getting an underground natural gas pipeline installed. It should be
ready soon, and once they have that, it will supposedly solve the power
outages. Otherwise, I was told that it's not uncommon for this to happen
every so often until the end of the year!
Later, around 2pm, we did finally get a phone call and headed back to
the complex where our office is located. The power stayed on for the
rest of the day, although on the way there we noticed another government
office was shutting down for the day, apparent from all the people
getting on federal buses to take them home at the end of the day. So we
wondered, maybe they got to have power in the morning and then we took
their power for the afternoon?

No comments:

Post a Comment