When we got back to my apartment around 6pm it was to darkness. There was no electricity at all. The building was fine. All the hallways were lit and the lift worked fine.
Once inside my apartment I could hear a tv/radio coming from the apartment above me. So the problem appeared isolated to my apartment. Of course the wifi in the apartment is not working either. I have no data on my phone - so no way to contact my hostess Maria. Luckily, RM came up to my apartment with me - so I have assistance. She puts her phone on hotspot mode and I tie into it on my computer. Now I can email Maria through AirBNB. For the next 30-40 minutes I keep sending more information - hoping that pinging her phone more often will get her attention.
We turn all the fuses off and then on again - no lights. Sometime during that period, RM decides she will go to the grocery store for the both of us while I wait for a response. She gets back from the store and I decide not to put the groceries in the fridge. I had opened it once and it is not very cold.
We tried to call the phone number that Maria has given us. I can't call at all. Rm says the phone number has an British country code. RM was married to a Brit until he passed away,. Finally RM says - lets call your daughter, Alexis in Copenhagen. She's married to a Brit - Certainly she has a phone that can call Briton. Alexis sets up a 3 way WhatsApp chat with RM and Maria. It is over an hour since I had started sending Maria messages.
Suddenly Maria starts answering us on both platforms. She says she is going to call the insurance - no, no it then translates as the electrician. The electrician will call RM within 2 hours. RM is worried that her phone is running out of energy. She decides to go to her apartment to get her extra battery. She is back in less than ten minutes. The electrician has already called her.
RM calls the electrician back while I hold my phone as a flashlight so she can see the fuse box. He has her turn off all the fuses slowly and in a specific order. Then do it twice more. The lights come on. The electrician seems to think there is something wrong with the special orange switch so sets an appointment with us for Monday morning. I have no idea what time - but before noon. I may be greeting him in my pajamas!
So all things considered - that was a pretty fast turnaround to get the electricity back on.
What would have happened if RM had just dropped me off in front of my building and gone on to her apartment? I'm thinking I would have started knocking on doors on my floor until I found someone who I could convince to let me use their wifi. Because I could not have contacted RM if my phone was not on wifi - I apparently do not have much data - though our plan says I have 1 GB of data. One of the first things I will do when I get home - is to get this problem fixed!
you travel so much I'm surprised about the data! Often plans restrict data per geography but again, you travel so much, it seems like you'd already have that sorted long ago.
ReplyDeleteWell in Mom's defense, we usually travel together and I am the one who does most of the online use of aps and all via the phone. I have noted, however, on this trip, that there are changes in T-Mobile's carrier here in Ghana causing less connectivity. So I'm wondering if they've done some things to cut costs.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it all worked out and I was thrilled that I could (mostly) communicate with the electrician. That seemed like a minor miracle to me.
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