Today it seems like it’s not too bad to be in the States for a while instead of West Africa.
This is yesterday’s post from great friends of mine who live about 20 miles from me, in the town where I get my diesel.
I’m
including a picture of some of the most important vendors in northern
Benin – the fuel “re-sellers.” They buy fuel in Togo or Nigeria,
transport it in large 55-gallon drums and then re-sell the fuel (gas,
diesel and oil) in glass liter bottles. Buying 30+ liters for the truck
can sometimes be a 20-minute venture. For the past month or so there
has been no diesel available at the gas stations (2) in our town or the
town 30-minutes south of us. In order to keep truckin’ we go to our
friendly and exorbitantly priced fuel re-sellers.
In the last few days it has only gotten better. Now that there is no
diesel, the supplies of the local electric company for their diesel
generators have been used up (I think an enterprising employee may have
also been aiding & abetting the fuel re-sellers by selling the
power company’s diesel.) So now we have electricity in our region for
about 8 hours a day –usually at night. At least it is rainy season so
the food in our refrigerator & freezer are surviving. It is ironic
to us that now our nearly completed house in the bush has a better
electrical supply than our house here in town.