Dear Zesco, what is the meaning of this?

Image: stolen WhatsApp DP

Anyone who lives in Zambia or has been here for a day or two has likely experienced load shedding (aka a rolling blackout). Eight (to 10) hours of no electricity because Zesco (Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation) cannot meet the country’s electricity demands. If you've been to Zambia but haven't experienced load shedding for yourself then chances are you've heard people complaining about it, that's become our national past time. The power cuts happens daily. But as I write this, in my area we have experienced 5 straight days of no load shedding and I’m utterly confused. Shocked. Bewildered. Puzzled. Mystified. Dumbfounded. Discombobulated. Ok, you get the idea but I needed to add all those synonyms just to show the gravity of this (and no, I didn’t have to bring out a thesaurus for all this). I just have to ask you Zesco, what is the meaning of this?

Did someone tasked with the evil job of pressing a button to switch us off forget for five whole days? If so I hope this person never gets fired and will continue to hold this responsibility. Or did State House move to Mak… Actually no, I won’t reveal which part of Lusaka I live in lest someone at Zesco sees this and decides to disproportionally punish us for the privilege of five days without load shedding.

This is just too good to be true. No need to worry about food in the fridge spoiling and I can play fruit ninja on my phone whenever I want without worrying about how much battery power I have and I can keep reading think pieces about Kanye West’s continued meltdown. I was beginning to live like my Stone Age ancestors, they didn’t have 24 hours of power either and they cooked with fire too. When I say I cook with fire I’m referring to my use of a gas stove at home. In these modern times we are so disconnected from the old ways and the life our ancestors lived but Zesco is addressing this well. My ancestors didn’t know what uninterrupted electricity was and now, neither do I (with the exception of these past five days). My ancestor cooked with fire and so do I. Fire in my case, being fire from the gas stove.
 

Back to reality…

So the day after I started this post, it happened. At 6:00am on the dot power was cut. Of course it didn’t come back 8 hours later as it should have but more like 9 hours. But thank you Zesco for allowing me the privilege of five days of power. I had forgotten what that felt like. To the person, or people, that forgot or simply didn’t bother to turn the power off, I really appreciate your slacking off. Please keep it up.