My life on Campus (4)

      The Blackout.
  This happened a while back.
   I was resuming to the hostel early enough like the good student I was so that I could settle down before lectures would begin. The day I resumed was on a Sunday and they made a stupid rule that I had to get my hotel clearance that same day. It seemed like a fairly easy thing to do until i got to the bursary and saw the queue there. Fortunately my mum was around(yes I am a "mummy's" girl) and she went in to try to get it for me. Unfortunately, I was owing as shown on my statement of my account(long story) and because of that she couldn't get it. So long story cut short I went back home and decided to come the next day.
 
   Prior to my resumption there were rumors going about that the generator powering the school got burnt and hence we would be relying solely on PHCN for power supply. That was a bit discouraging because we all know how PHCN functions. When they were still called NEPA I used to refer to them as "Never Expect Power Always". Nevertheless, I didn't take the issue seriously because students tend to exaggerate a lot and I thought that this was one of those times.

   So I came back the next day, sorted things out and off I was to my hostel to eventually settle down. There was no light throughout out the period I got into the hostel and thinking it was a minor thing and that the light would come on at night, I didn't think anything of it. I just went about catching up with my friend with no worries.

   Night time came. There was still no light. My enthusiasm that the light was eventually going to come was waning. I proceeded to get food, had my dinner and got prepared for bed. I decided to sleep in my friend's room because there was no light and I was the only one who had resumed for the semester as at then. So I went to sleep, feeling all hot and sweaty. In fact, what happened that night was one of the most unpleasant things that ever happened to me.

   Dawn broke. The situation remained the same. That was when I finally realised immensely the magnitude of the issue. To have my bath I had to get water from the taps outside because there was no water inside. Also I couldn't boil my bathing water. The light eventually came, that evening. I learnt how to boil water when the light finally came and store it in my flask. The first week was hell; water wasn't running upstairs on my floor, I had to fetch water up the stairs, the heat was unbearable, mosquitoes were abundant, the pungent smell of the toilets and bathrooms was a pain in the butt, my phones got dead very often; life during that period of time was so intolerable. It is no wonder that my immune system broke down and I went home to build it up and came back about 3weeks later.

   Fortunately, the light is back to normal now; they finally got a new generator (although there are still power outages but they don't lead to blackout). I have access to water upstairs (when the porters remember to pump the water), mosquitoes have reduced a bit because the bathrooms are cleaner and the heat is not so unbearable now. Now life in the dorms are more tolerable and attending lectures is now easier. I just hope things continue this way.