Electrifying. . .

As I near the end of two years in my village, I still run into things that are shocking - things that I would never expect. Many of these things I can’t comprehend or really even deal with, at least at first. The other day I took off all my clothes, went in my showering area, and touched the water in a bucket. Ouch! I jumped and quickly got out of the shower.

At this point, I thought I might really be going crazy. I touched it again. Same shock. “Something must be in the bucket,” I thought, “an electric device, an electric eel, an electric something.” So I picked up my shoes and used them to knock over the bucket to see what strange things that spilled out. There wasn’t anything visible, so I decided to at least take a plastic bucket and fill it with water. I figured, “Well, I’m not sure what’s going on, but at least plastic doesn’t conduct electricity.

I jumped in the shower, scared to touch the water. Bravely I dipped my hand in to take the cup, without a problem. “That’s right,” I thought, “I can handle this.” I poured water over myself, and reached to grab my soap. “Ouch!” My soap shocked me too. My feet were also getting a little electricity.

“I really must be going crazy,” I thought, as I grabbed my cell phone and called Adrien, who was working au champ at the time. “Adrien,” I said, “There’s something strange here and I think I’m going crazy. Come home!” Shortly after he arrived, sure to himself that I was losing it. He went in the shower, touched the water, nothing. He touched around, and finally, “oh!” he got a really shock too.

We went outside and were staring at the exterior of the house. Maman was there too and we were brainstorming what we were going to do when a vieux came along and asked why we were staring at the house. Maman explained in Bariba, and he said to her, “The same thing happened to me. It turned out that a loose wire was electrifying the ceiling. Somehow electricity came through the cement and shocked me.”

Needless to say, we called the electrician. He came, claimed to fix the problem while I was out, and took off. It turned out he hadn’t fixed the problem, he had left my house completely disconnected from the electricity. After a few days of calling him, and getting shocked by my house, we finally got him to come. He climbed up into a cubby hole in the ceiling and shortly after the problem was resolved.

Since it’s the rainy season, the walls were especially humid which would explain why they were conducting electricity. Honestly, I have never been shocked in my life as much as I have been shocked in Benin, and I know many others who have other similar and bizarre stories. Just yesterday I was with a friend when a power strip randomly caught on fire. Fortunately, these buildings are mostly made in cement so the risk isn’t that huge. No electric eels, no I’m not going crazy. I’m just living in Benin.