A DAY IN THE LIFE

Another day in paradise.  It is very hot and humid again here in the capital.  Here is the little story of the last  24 hours  or so.............

Yesterday it was damn hot and humid.  And about 7 times the electricity went out, only to come back on in about 20 or 30 minutes. I have an inverter and 2 batteries so other then at times resetting either my cable box or my internet router, its not a big deal.

At 11:20 pm, the electricity went OUT.  Last night i was using my air conditioner in combination with my ceiling fan so I noticed immediately.  First the A/C goes off and the fan makes a slightly whiney sound.  I drifted back so sleep as the room was pretty cool.  At 2:30 am, now I am awake listening to the noise from my neighbors. There are about 28 people living there including small children (Slight exaggeration of course) and  they have no inverter system so they are dying of heat and the kids are crying. 

I called the electrical company at 2:30 and am told Story A.

I manage to go back to sleep, waking at  6 am, and I call again and I am told Story B.

Yup I am up for the day. Now its 8:30 am  and I call again and I am told Story  C.

My inverter has been working now since 11:20 pm but I only use a fan,  internet and my computer, gotta work you know. Everything else is unplugged.

Now its 10:30 am,  11 hours of outage and  I call again to get --------------wowwwwwww ------------  told .........there is NO REPORT of an outage.  Really,  are you kidding me????   Cause you know I wrote down every report I made from my phone. 

I had a  meeting at 11:30 am so off I go.  I get back home at 2pm to find one of those big electricity trucks parked beneath a pole near our cul de sac.  Yup there is something broken. Imagine that!!! Guy tells us all the part is bad but they don't have another one. He thinks he is going to leave..........oh hell no.  All the men in the area surround the truck and he calls into the company for help.  Imagine that they find a part and we get our repair done! 

At  4 pm this afternoon  our electricity came back on!!!!!  Almost  18 hours of outage!  Yikes.

You might think this is a bit of a crazy story, but, trust me it really isn't. This is the kind of thing that can and will go on here.  Adapting is critical. Knowing when to get tougher with organizations here is important,  knowing your neighbors, being friendly etc all helps to  handle these things.   Being able to laugh at times will keep your sanity.

And having the number of a local colmado to order a cold beer, or some rum and coke - is priceless!!!!

Glad it is back on.  Fingers crossed it stays that way.

The part about "yep it is broken, and we don't have the part"  is not surprising at all.  It is kind of a standard MO here.

Bob K

One among many..... hahahahaha.

It seems interesting that after saying that they did not have the part, somehow the part arrives (or whatever) and the line is fixed.

There is a universal tactic among people who take complaints and do not know diddly about the problem to lie and make up stuff. This certainly exists in the US. My college's bookstore did not have textbooks. The faculty complained, and were told that the bookstore did not receive the order forms. When copies of the order forms submitted were shown, they said that the problem was not that the PROPER order forms were submitted, and passed out copies of a new order form no one has seen before.  Both forms, when completed, gave the author, publisher, publisher's address and telephone. The new forms were submitted. No books arrived, not one.

Finally, I called the publisher, who told me that no books were sent because the college (who had sold the books and taken the students' money)  had not paid for books for the previous two semesters. Other professors then called publishers and got the same answer. The Business Manager actually DENIED that a dozen publishers had not been paid. A month later, the bills were paid, and the faculty was not informed. My solution was to buy cheap Spanish books downtown and sell them to the students.

So this sort of crap happens in the US as well. But perhaps in the DR they keep their representatives in the dark  more often. When they say they do not have a part, that sounds rather like, "but perhaps we know where to BUY the part, if only, hint, hint".

In the US the power and water companies have a lot of oversight. I am sure that the reason for this is that many years ago, there were problems such as you describe. Cable companies are pretty bad at service everywhere, perhaps because they still can get away with it. Comcast and Time Warner are the most hated companies in the US.

In the last 3 days we have had many many smaller outages.  Usually they last  1 to 2 hours. At least when I call Edesur they tell me the truth - there is not electricity to supply the grid.  Today i am on the 3rd outage so far!!!!  The first 2 were 2 hours each! 

Yup things are a mess i electricity world..........

Funny for the first time in a long time we actually have had none or maybe an occasional short outage every few days.

Bob K

wow.. I am really hoping that by the time we retire, 10 years, the electricity problem will improve.. since you have been there so  may years, could you say the problem is still better than 10 years ago ? or is it still the same ?

Ahhhhh honey we can only hope. Is it better?  Not sure, but we have more affordable management options. Meaning inverters and batteries - more choices, more ranges of prices.  And i assume it is the same for generators but I don't know for sure.

Yes back up systems have improved over the last 8-9 years. BUT the basic service is basically the same for most of the areas.  Do I see it improving....about an ice cubes chance in hell, unless the government changes the way things are done and folks start paying for what the use.

Bob K

I imagine that better lithium batteries and better LEDs will make things easier. Perhaps solar cells will be cheaper and more efficient as well.

Part of the problem is that there is not enough generating capacity in the DR, and that is partly because resources to generate electricity do not exist (though there could be a lot more hydroelectric power). Another problem is that that people do not pay for electricity. In many places, the only way to get electricity is to connect to the lines illegally. There is no way to connect legally. .

There was no public electricity in Las Terrenas until 1990. If you had lights, it was because you had a planta  (generator). Since then the place has been wired, and I think they have meters and people pay their bills any everything. . .

I find it very hard to believe that other then the most remote areas, that the ONLY way to get electricity is to steal it. Absolute BS.

That is the biggest reason there is not enough electrical production - still we have close to 40%electrical theft across this country!!!

The 60%who pay cannot pay for 100% consumption.  Simple math!!!

Perhaps there is a way to pay, but being as the meters are nonfunctional, I have no idea how anyone would know what the amount might be.

When I arrived in Barahona in July, a guy flagged down the guagua and told him that the main highway into town was blocked, because there was a huelga. Huelga, of course, does not mean anyone has stopped working in order to get more pay from the boss. It means that some clowns blocked the road to protest electricity outages, which are daily in most of Barahona. So the driver turned down a dusty path and let me out at the Shell station, and I got a motoconcho back up the hill to Palmerito. Huelgas do not normally bother motoconchos, which just zip around the blocks and limbs they have put in the street,

The huelga had no affect other than to annoy people wishing to use the paved road into town. There was a rumor that there would be a huelga on July 26th (the Cuban Revolution is celebrated on this date in 1953, when Fidel attacked the Moncada barracks and lost most of his followers), which was a Saturday.

The colmados (all five of them) all turned off their music and shut down. The lights went out. There was very little traffic on the street, which is usually busy. Then... nothing happened. There was no mention of any possible huelga that I heard, but somehow, there was a rumor that there might be a huelga and then a rumor that nothing would happen. Un misterio.

Most of the houses in Palmerito do not have electric meters. Those that once had one have painted them over. Wires have been routed around them. The connections that run to the houses do not look like amateur wiring jobs such as I have seen in Mexico and Ecuador. (Tie a rock to a bare wire and fling it over the line). Lots of messy clots of wires on the poles.

I  was told that several years ago they were all disconnected in protest. It was announced on the local radio station that soon the blackouts would end when people started paying their bills. There was some sort of plan to reconnect//install new meters. But nothing has happened. The electricity usually comes on at 7 AM,and goes out around 10. It returns around noon and goes off around 3:00 PM. In the evenings, it is sporadic, and can come on anything between 5PM and midnight. It can pop on and off for or five times every night. When it comes on everyone cheers. When it goes out, everyone groans.

People in Palmerito don't get a lot of mail, and the houses are not numbered. The usual way someone finds their true address is to check the light bill. But no one has received one of those since 2010.  The usual way one gives an address is to indicate a nearby business (Colmado Mirian, Carneceria Fulano) after the street name. Then one asks around.

I suppose that I could go to the electric company and offer to pay a bill, but I look far too much like a gringo. And it would not result in better service. So I shall just do nothing and try to blend in.

That is the same or similar story to many "barrios".  Some just steal as there. Some pay a flat fee and use as much as they want when they have electricity.  Some actually  have meters.   

Electrical distributors have connected many many areas, spent thousands hooking up, only to have it all disconnected by the tigueres and reconnected illegally!  At some point they stopped trying in many areas.

There is a long long history of entitlement in some barrios. It is not going to go away easily or quickly. It is a HUGE problem to all of us. 

And then there are those who know how to take advantage of the system, install several meters when they are entitled to one,  install one but bypass almost all their usage to illegal feeds. Or those who are powerful and just steal and know they will get away with it. That is another whole group.

Mail -  yes I laugh about this often.  Every month I have to call to get my current balance owing on my electricity. i have to call to get my water bill. etc etc etc.  If you don't pay they cut you off. But they do not feel bound to actually tell you how much to pay.

The first day I had a bank statement arrive at my house I almost feel over in shock.  Mail just simply does not exist.  Companies have messengers who go out (sometimes) and deliver the notices etc.  Many times I am sure they all get tossed in garbage cans..... etc. 

Huelgas - yup the  local and disorganized are a pain in the butt. 

The organised are a huge pain.  I have had to change travel plans and work plans due to major huelgas. Almost always we get notified in advance but every once in a while there is a big one and it wreaks havoc. Advice to anyone and everyone - see a huelga - go the other way immediately!! Do not get caught up in any of it.  It is dangerous as often we do not know why they are upset and who they are upset at!  Don't make it you.

I have sent five letters and four got through. The one that did not was one of those cards that plays a song. It had a sort of bulge in the middle,and I suspect that someone thought it might contain cash, and opened it. The others, mostly groups of 12 to 15 photos, all arrived, some within two weeks.

Here in Miami, a neighbor's son proposed that I pay a buddy $200 to furgle my electric meter to lower my bill. I declined, first because I am not a thief, but also because no one my neighbor's son has ever been competent. Once he asked to mow my lawn...for $50. It takes me about an hour when I do it myself.  I said Fifty AMERICAN dollars? and said, no, thanks. My neighbor is a cheerful Puerto Rican guy who keeps me up on the neighborhood gossip. He likes to mention that no one messes with him because he sleeps with a loaded pistol under his pillow. One of his sons shot some guy (not fatally)  and spent several years in prison. A second son had a fight with his wife, who ratted out to the police that he had some sort of very illegal gun. The police found the gun and sent him off to prison. Eventually, Pedro will figure out that guns have caused him far more trouble than they have prevented, but I will let him figure that out for himself.

Cut it up anyway your want to the fact are:

40% of electricity is stolen, and not matter what small efforts are made this does not change and this includes not only the poor but major companies, and rich individuals as well.  Like Planner said ... entitlement

Huelgas are a ineffective but the folks like them because it get them a day off work (usually with pay) they get to start fires and throw rocks with out fear of punishment.  Notice how many are scheduled for Friday afternoons to give a long weekend...and nothing changes

Mail....one of the biggest jokes around.  But lots of people work for the "postal service" and collect some decent wages for NO WORK.

But you learn to live with this stuff and we continue to live in paradise.

Bob K

An interesting day in paradise.  Yes the electricity has now stayed on 24 full hours in a row!!! Yup a banner day here at my house.

We had rain first thing this morning then some sun and  from about noon on clouds and now thunderstorms and some heavy rain. All makes for a brutal Friday afternoon  traffic mess in Santo Domingo.  Friday afternoon and evening is consistently the worst time of week to do anything!!!!!  Thank goodness I mostly work from home and so I stay home on Fridays whenever it is an option!

In addition to regular traffic jam times,  it will build even more starting about  4pm and continue well past 8pm. And good lord help us if it rains like today!!!!  I was once in the business district at 6 pm on  a rainy Friday and I waited 1 hour 45 minutes for a taxi. Yup brutal.

Great day to be at home.   I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!!!!

Yep actually left the beach after 40 min because the clouds and rain rolled in. Now cloudy again and more rain I am sure.  The gardens are dancing.

We too have had a good run with electricity and only lost it 4 times in 25 min last night during some heavy rain. It is good when we lose it for an hour so as we can run the AC to keep it "greased" at no additional costs (on the Generator then).

Great dinner last night for our anniversary. It was probably the best dinner we have had here in the DR.  Restaurant is called Bliss in Cabarete and would recommend it to anyone.  Not bad price either, a bit expensive but well worth it.

Bob K

Happy Anniversary to you both honey!!!!

Its my anniversary Sunday  -  11 years here in paradise.   I am celebrating with a full body massage,  facial and then dinner with friends!

Congrats to  you as well.  We START our 9th year here next week.  It goes by so fast

Bob K

It sure does Bob!!!!

Happy Anniversary Bob!! 2 you and Patty, many more to come buddy!!!  Happy Anniversary to you too Planner. 11 years in paradise sounds likeva good deal lol.  Also sounds like things are looking up in electricity world!    Rain world too.

Planner my trips approaching fast! And Ill also be doing some school shopping for my little ones pretty soon, some probably this weekend. Why dont you send me a pm with your thoughts on some of the supplies you could use. Ill try to knock that out rt away.

Huelgas:  Those are the fires that you see burning in the middle of the street correct?  Ive seen them on my last trip there, driving from cangrejo back to sosua.  I was driving with Jesse a friend who lives there (American but business owner there, also for 8 years) and I was driving cuz he was drinking, and when I seen that fire burning in the middle of the street i thought to slow down 2 see if everything was cool -thats almost the thought when you see a fire - and what i fount peculiar was how Jesse jumped up out his drunken mess to demand that I NOT stop slow down or even look that way, just drive right by.. Rapido!!

reminds me of what Planner mentioned about being safe in DR has alot to do with keeping your head down and minding your business!

Huelgas can be dangerous situations.  In the early stages of one you do not want to drive by, walk by or go anywhere near one.  Lots of rock throwing and worse.  After a bit the police usually have some control and you can drive by quickly but watch out for rocks and debris in the road.   Yep... keep you head down and GO!

Bob K

Lots of rain last night......what drought

Bob K

Drought is over.....yayyyy.

Huelga this week at UASD the public university.  Outside groups continuously use students and the campus to stage huelgas.  Lots of rock, bottle throwing, tire burning, traffic becomes horrible and police are called in.  It is ugly and dangerous.  To some its a cause for others a day off school and some excitement. It also can turn tragic.

Stay well clear!!!

Thank you for your reply Planner and sorry about my delay !! Have been very busy !

you are very welcome, no worries on delay, I understand real life interferes on a regular basis!!!!! 

Wow it is raining cats, dogs, cows, horses, goats and on and on. I now have an infinity pool

Bob K

We have had thunder,  lightening, some rain and nice and cool tonight! Great weather for sleeping!!!

For us 3.6 inches of rain yesterday.  Lawns are so green and need to be mowed already (just done 10 days ago)

Bob K

Not sure how much we got last evening and overnight. We started today nice, cool but sunny. Did my laundry, hung it out, thunder started, took the laundry down,  poured rain!  Now overcast and laundry drying under the fans......LOL 

Such is life on a tropical island!!!!  Soooooo much fun!   IF the sun comes back out, laundry goes back out.

Ohhh and by cooler, I mean 86 F instead of 94F......LOL

AT 86 our security guards have on jackets and at 75 winter coats.

Still overcast here

Bob K

At night air conditioner is OFF and ceiling fan is turned down and the  covers are on!!!!  Funny how we get climatized.  We go from this extreme hot humid to a bit cooler and it is a relief for a day or two. I am sure we will be back to normal september weather very very soon.............LOL

Last night it felt like December!  hahahahahaha

Ede Norte strikes again. No power since 9am today so now going on 7 hours of generator.  Thank God for the generator

Bob K

So sorry to hear honey.  Message to all: you need back up power source to live here in reasonable comfort!!!

Back on after 7 plus hours.

Planner congrats on the anniversary.  Eleven years...WOW!

Bob K

Thanks honey.  Ive been writing a post but havent finished it yet!!! Hahaha.

It won't take 11 more years for the post will it??

Bob K