A visitor arrives

Well there is nothing much to report from here these days. We have a visitor, a WATSAN guy. Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) meaning anything to do with water (fresh and waste) and garbage (esp biological, non-biodegradable and special 'sharps' from the hospital).

Besides that our emergency last night was a fluorescent bulb burned out in the hospital. No problem you say? Well the bulb was located in the delivery room and coincidently one of our passing land-cruisers picked up a patient suffering a very distressing labour (it is common for us to give patients rides to the hospital no problem) for the last SEVERAL days. So with a bulb blown it is hard to see to deliver this child. Mother is suffering, IV tubes and has been injected with contraction inducing drugs...you can imagine. What to do. Well they tried to swap bulbs in the hospital. No luck, this bulb is non-standard. I get a call at 1900 on the radio asking for help. I go into the warehouse with the bulb code (as provided by the hospital staff for the type of bulb it was) and bring one out. Just getting ready to pass it off to the driver for delivery when the radio chirps and it seems that the bulb number was incorrect. Sorry, we have NO other bulb styles. So now what? Eventually I send them off with two kerosene lanterns and a jippo flashlight. That was an hour out of my life. And the WATSAN guy is hovering around waiting for me so we can do some work????? Please. I finish work at 1700. I demand it.

THEN at 0500 this am one of the security guys comes to my bedroom window and wakes me up. Seems we have run out of battery power and the base has gone dark for lack of security lights. This pisses me off, this is twice in three days for a system which has been working perfectly for almost a year. We have 6 deep cycle gel batteries connected to the generator which runs two shifts of 3.5 hours providing the base with an unheard of 24 hrs of power...for everything except the fridge (works only with the generator). We run: Computers (5) printers (2) fans (3) DVD, TV, Stereo surround sound, low-power compact fluorescent bulbs (20+= main building, vehicle workshop, drug warehouse, WFP food warehouse, bungalow with five bedrooms and two bath, and new residence with 3 bed, one bath and a lounge, the guard shelter and the gate lights, the water pump shelter and the generator shelter), HF radio, VHF radio, handset radio battery chargers, a mini-m satellite phone, a Thurya satellite base station (1) and an extra Thurya handset on charge.

So now there is a problem with the electrics. What is it? Do the batts simply need a good charge up? or do we have a dead battery? Corroded terminals need cleaning? Or is it something simple like the depth of discharge growing less and less with age of the batteries (a phenomenon you have experienced with your camera battery). OR maybe we have a power leak? Who knows; it is my task for today. That and I have the two cooks coming in for an 'emergency meeting'. Wonder what the hell that is?