My Take on Living in Nigeria: Generation Generator

It has just occured to me that my blog entries have been *for want of a better word* rather "inward". I have been living and working in Nigeria now for almost 4 months, and not one entry has given much insight to what life is like living here. So I thought, once in a while I should dedicate an entry to such a topic.

Being ill at home means that I get to be aware of occurances that normally happens in the camp while I'm at work. 2 days in a row now the generator has come on at specific times of the day.

Generator. Now there's a word or object that I have not heard in a long time. I thought those things were long obsolete - what with all the new-age ways of generating energy these days.

The last time I know of someone who had used it was my grand-uncle (Nenen Anggah). My maternal grandmother's third brother. This was way back in the early 80's - 1982, if I'm not mistaken. Nene Anggah and family had just moved house from Jalan Kumbang Pasang to Kampung Tanah Jambu. At that time, there was hardly any house being built in that particular "simpang" (of course now it's practically a village within a village). So no sign of existing civilisation meant that no electricity supply was available in that part of the village. For quite a long time, everytime we went there for any occasions/functions/events I will always remember how noisy it was - I will learn later that this was courtesy of the generator. Gosh, what must that have been like to live with?

Fast forward that to the next millennnium - almost the end of 2006 to be precise - the use of generators is pretty much a big part of daily life here in Nigeria. With so much oil money and untapped talents, you'd be surprise by the standard of living Nigerians are having to live. Electricity, something we have taken for granted in the 21st century, is still not in steady supply.

Nigerians (those who can afford it) have lived to depend on generators to keep daily electrical goods, like refridgerators, running. I have recently discovered, much to my surprise, that generators are not economical to maintain. I've been told that most people will only run their generators for certain periods during the day, just enough to keep their fridges running to keep their food fresh for as long as possible. So you can forget about having all-day air-conditioning in your house.

This new insight about generators has made me think about my very own "lush" living conditions within the residential area. You'd be surprise what spoilt and idealic life we lead here inside the camp. We have electricity running 24-7.

Being employed by a big company means that it can afford to provide it's employees with decent homes complete with a golf course, a club (restaurants, tennis courts, olympic size swimming pool, warts & all) and the all more important electricity. Mind you, the company has it's own power station which is why the electricty supply is so reliable.

Of course, in the event that the power station suffers a shut-down (which is not very often, I must say), we have these gigantic generators placed between every few houses or so all over the camp to help out. Normally it doesn't take long before the generator takes over in cases of power failure. So quick that you don't normally notice it until you hear the noisy drumming, humming and vibrations coming from the generators. Oh. Did I tell you that one of the generators is just opposite our house?

I shouldn't complain really. It has its perks living within close proximity to the nearest generator. But the main perk has to be sharing the same generator as the top man of the company's abode. This means that whenever power's down, it's our generator that gets switched on first - wouldn't want the First Lady of the camp to be in the least bit "perspiring" in distress, do we?

Before I even begin to have any more thoughts that remotely resembles as complaint, I should count my blessings that we live a stone throw's away from the nearest generator - well, for the existence of generators in general. I should think about the Nigerians living outside the camp whose daily livelihood depends so much on the generators.

Come to think of it, I should also thank my lucky stars before I start complaining and swearing all words beginning with every letter of the alphabet the next time we have a power trip in Brunei.