A day Niger style

Today was such a typical example of life in Niger! We woke up, and while we were still getting our day started the power went out. I think it was around 8:30 AM. So breakfast was an adventure of opening the fridge as quickly as possible, since there was no way of knowing when it would have power again. Power goes out fairly often, but usually only lasts 15 minutes at the most. Well, by 10:30 AM the house was fairly miserable with no fans, and the kids and I were going crazy! It was playgroup day, so we went to April's house and enjoyed her air conditioning for a couple of hours.
The kids and I returned home at 12:45 to be greeted at the door by Emilie, our house worker. Our power was STILL out. I called Kevin to find out what was the deal. He had been at the office working on the issue. Apparently the Nigerien guy who works at our SIM office hadn't paid our bill! He went to the electric company for three days in a row, and thought the line was too long. So he went home without paying the bill!!! Our line had been cut due to the unpaid bill. They won't turn it back on until the bill is paid. Kevin was working on it, but it was going to take a while. So I went straight to the rec center, without even unloading the kids. It was way too hot for them to nap at home anyway, and there was no way I was cooking lunch in that heat with no fans! So we ordered lunch and swam for the afternoon. Meanwhile Kevin was trying to get a check to pay the bill, and find two people authorized to sign it. (Only one of whom was at the office.) After a day of the runaround for Kevin, and a day keeping up with four nap-skipping-non-swimmers at the pool for me they turned our power back on at around 5:30. I headed home to get the tired kids fed and to bed. Kevin took off with my uncle Claude to see if they could spot hippos from a canoe in the Niger River. Never a dull moment around here!