At miien pleu´n tee!*

It´s late evening here in Phnom Penh, and my apartement is pitch black. The only source of light is my computer screen. As so many other evenings during the past weeks, there´s no electricity. There´s a huge scarcity of electric power in Phnom Penh. Cambodia doesn´t produce any itself, it´s all imported from the neigbouring countries. This means that the electricity is scarce and bloody expensive. I´ve heard that Cambodia has the highest price for electricity in the world, and considering how painful I find it to pay my domestic electricity bill every month, I don´t doubt it. The shortage of electricity and the boom of private investements with new banks, offices, housing estates and other building that requires a lot of electricity, going up in Phnom Penh every day is not very good combination. Adding on the fact that the hot season is here, which requires all households and businesses to switch on their air-cons and fans doesn´t really help either. Not to mention how hot it gets in the office and at home during the power cuts… Without air conditioning and fans, the temperature soon climbs up to close to +40 degrees celsius, which makes it impossible to work, think, sleep… Even my Khmer colleagues are complaining, finding the heat almost unbearable. They don´t sweat as much as I do though, as they are more used to it. The other morning, I came to the office for a meeting with my colleagues, just to find the electricity cut off. Although it was still early in the morning, the temperature was already almost too much to take. We agreed to make it a short meeting, due to the heat. After approximately 10 minutes, a colleague pointed at me and laughed loudly ”-Look! The water is coming out now”!, which I guess means ”Look, she´s sweating!”.

So, how does Cambodia handle this problem with lack of electricity? The solution ”the people in charge” as my Khmer colleagues call them, is: electricity rationing. The electricity to different areas of the city is cut off during different parts of the day – and you never know when you´ll be effected as there´s no information about this. Sometimes you´ll have electricity in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, or in the evening. On just one of those periods. Or, if you´re unlucky – none. Yesterday for example, my electricity was cut in the morning. When I came to the office, which is situated in another part of the city, it was soon cut there, too - for five hrs… But at least there was electricity in the evening. Which is obvious not the case tonight… or for any evening last week, for that matter… The funny – or rather very annoying – thing is that if you´re lucky to live in a neighbourhood where ”high ranking and powerful people” (to quote my Khmer colleagues again) - live as well, you won´t have this problem. Because in those areas, the power will never be switched off! One of my colleagues is lucky in this sense, as he lives next to the deputy Prime Minister. While I have my electricity cut several times a day, he hasn´t had any problems with power cuts for as long as he has lived there; the past six years… Here in Cambodia, it´s obviously good to know your neigbours… So; until a minister or alike moves in next to my office or apartement, I guess that I just have to get used to the ”black outs”. I think the only way I can avoid to go crazy from frustration is to try to see it as an opportunity to improve my patience – and obviously also to amuse my colleagues.

* Khmer for ”There´s no electricity!”