Loadshedding in Cape Town

[Carolynn Bruton]

We have been warned of power cuts happening in Cape Town because of problems in our electricity supplies and the lack of new power stations being developed. Today we experienced it for real. Being a computer teacher in the midst of report preparation and assessment was rather tricky with no phones, no computers and no easy contact with the outside world. After ticking off all the calls I could make on my personal cell phone, I actually ran out of things to do at school!

I have become so technologically dependant that I have now made myself redundant today. My planning schedule is now 24 hours behind and I didn't even go to the gym because most of the equipment there would probably not be working anyway. Even the robots (traffic lights) were out for half of my journey home - and everyone of course was surprisingly friendly and non-aggressive. Tomorrow I will bring my personal laptop to school but it will be of limited value as the assessment/admin programme we use for most of the senior primary reports can only be accessed on the school campus.

So I have mixed feelings - joy at having extra time at home with the sweet boxer pup and splendid solitude before the hungry family return and worry about being behind schedule. Concern about how terribly technologically dependant I am - I even regularly use dontforgetthemilk.com for lists!

So Springfield may not have achieved their green flag status (I am the EcoSchools co-ordinator at our school) - but certainly we've done something towards our school's environmental footprint reduction - even if it was unintended! Do you have load shedding in your country? I'd love to know.

[Michele Martin]

Hi Carolynn--I know the feeling of having an over-reliance on technology. Any down-time I get I tend to treat as an opportunity to do things a little differently. Sounds like you at least were able to enjoy some time with your puppy!