Today, we had a couple of domestic issues. First, we are having problems with our gas. Butane, I think. There is a hot water heater that doesn't want to seem to want to turn on. And the flames on our stove burn incompletely and leave a black oily residue on the underside of our pots and pans. So we asked our neighbors thinking they would deal with these issues on a regular basis. But, their solution was, after trying all the same stuff I tried, to call what they called the plumber.
So today he arrived a little after 4 pm. He tinkered with a solenoid on the water heater and it started up fine after that. Then he fiddled with the stove. The flow is regulated with these little plugs that have little holes in them. Each of the burners is a different size and all he did was move the smallest hole onto the biggest burner and told us to use just that one. He kind of left it there. I'm not sure what happens next.
About an hour later, at 5:30 pm the power suddenly went out. Not good. It's hot as hell out there and we were relying on the fan and the fridge to keep us cool. But those take juice. We ate the ice cream--a risky purchase in Morocco--and drank some water while it was cold. At about 7 pm, the juice returned.
It is fascinating to watch the street. The power went out all over our neighborhood. But you'd never guess it by looking at the street. There is absolutely no obvious sign at all that the electricity is out during the day. Moroccan commerce seems to be enhanced by electricity but doesn't have the absolute dependence on electricity that we have in America. In fact, electricity is probably worse for them. After all, a bar code scanner doesn't try to rip you off by inflating the price based on the fact that you are a tourist.
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