Day 11 – Wednesday

Did some work in the lab, transferring the E. coli colonies to a nutritional broth. Then I read more of my (dozens of) papers. Around noon Thembi gave me a tour of the campus and we ate a burger at “Oom Gert’s”. Once I got home for the day, I had a nap (on account of my sore throat) and woke up in the dark. My first loadshedding experience! Nothing worked. Not the lights, the fridge, the oven or even the hot-water-boiler. They usually don’t last more than two hours and luckily my laptop has a battery life.

In the middle of total and complete darkness, someone came into the house. I could hear the rattling of the front gate. I can tell you, there is nothing as creepy as being alone and then hearing someone you don’t know come in during a blackout. I was very glad I’d brought my hefty flashlight, even if the batteries failed me (which they didn’t) I could still clobber someone over the head with it.

The person had starting talking on the phone. Female. Very American. I opened the door and she said: “I think there’s someone here!” Which basically means we were both creeping each other out… Introduction ensued after acknowledgment that we both went axe-murderers. I would be sharing my little house with Megan, from California, from now on.