Electric slide....

The electric comes from Kyrgyzstan, a country south of Kazakhstan. So apparently, every day for about 2-3 hours they have planned blackouts. In the middle of the afternoon, the electric goes out. If you happen to wander into the heat, today was 122, you'll find that it's the norm here. Nobody is acting like it's a big deal at all. The grocery store that is on the first floor of our apartment building, simply writes down each and every purchase and uses a calculator. There are a few stores who have decided to beat the system and have bought or rented generators for these two-three hours per day. So, did I mention that the temperature was 122 yesterday?? Yeah. No air conditioning, no TV... good times, good times.
Now maybe I don't know how this stuff works back in the US, but it's never occurred to me that someone would "import" electricity. The real kicker is it seems that this is not only expected, but it's anticipated by the locals that it will get much more frequent and longer as the summer continues. Nice.

Speaking of electric, I must tell you about our utilities situation in our apartment. First of all, you know the guys that drive around in the nice trucks to come check your water meter or electric meter? At home in KY, because we have such a huge dog, the electric guys don't even have to get out of their truck. They have a remote control reader!!! Anyhow, no such device here (there's a big surprise). The other night, an elderly lady came knocking at our door. It was Sunday night at 9:30. She was the "meter maid" and read our water and electric! LOL The hot water is random in this apartment. When we got showers here, it would be scalding hot and with less than a second's notice, it would turn ice cold!!! It was enough to make a nun cuss!!! LOL Anyhow, Winston figured out how to make it a bit more consistent while in the shower. First you go to the kitchen, where the electric hot water heater is located. Then you turn on the kitchen sink water, pray it gets warm. When it doesn't get warm, you turn it off, and wait a few seconds. Turn the faucet back on to the assumed "hot" position, and wait. Repeat about 9 times. Eventually, the hot water will become hot enough to take a shower. But you MUST leave the kitchen sink running the entire time. By the way, when you get out of the shower, you will then notice a considerable amount of water that has accumulated on the floor. That's because it leaks. Nice, I know. You wish you were here.

The hot water heater shares a plug with the microwave, which sits on a small wooden 'bench'. The bench is too small and will topple over if not careful, or if you have a 2 year old in the house. Wait a minute, we have a 2 year old in the house! That's how I know it will topple over!!!! And therefore, any food you might have had parked in the middle of the microwave has now dispersed to various corners of the microwave. There is a microwave, but not one microwavable dish! Not one. The plates have metal on them, and there are no plastic or glass dishes, plates, etc... And the hot water heater must be unplugged in order to make room for the microwave to be plugged in. Please see attached picture. :-)



I will need to take a photo of the pipes that are dangling above on every street. I will post it hopefully tomorrow.