Saving the School

When the lights were flickering on and off I thought it was just a weird variant of the Tanzanian low power. Then about five minutes later there was a knock on the door and Mr. Athman (my neighbor and teacher on duty) said that there was a short and I needed to go down to look at the power. I put on my shoes and grabbed the solar powered flashlight and headed out. The flashlight wasn't charged and my eyes had not adjusted to the darkness, so I made my way down by memory, slow steps and the sound of their voices. Even though it is only about 100 feet and would take 30 seconds, blind it took me considerably longer.

They excitedly described the situation: that they heard a large bang and then the lights started going so there must be a short. My initial reaction was to open up the office and turn off the power but before I told anyonethe wire burst into flames. Mr. Athman told me to put out the fire with the guard's stick. Why didn't the guard use his own stick? I don't know; but I knew
I had better use the stick or we would be watching the school burn down. Ilashed at the wires like a child at a pinata. After I scored a direct hit on the first go I put out the main fire and quickly put out a second wire too. After that action I realized the most effective way to prevent another fire was to remove the fuses. So I ripped out the three external fuses andthen went to sleep feeling like a hero.

The rest of the week was uneventful aside from the fact that the power was restored the next day.