Dancing In The Dark

i am so itchy! i have mosquito bites. i have not had a mosquito bite in years! i live on the fourth floor of a walk-up. if a mosquito got up this high, it would probably ask for a seat and a glass of water. i would squash it as it tried to get its breath back. i went to a barbeque and now i can't finish a thought cos i keep having to scratch... or not scratch.

my roommate is in nigeria, in lagos. we try to communicate often and this can be a frustrating endeavour at times. and if it is frustrating for me, then i don't know how she deals with it. why? 'cause there are power cuts all the damn time in lagos. everyone seems to have at least one backup generator, 'cause the lights go out like EVERY DAY! it's ridiculous. on some days the electricity has kinda gone out but not completely - she or someone in the house "changes phases". don't ask me what that means, all i know is that i get a little more time to chat with her and the tv is on which always makes her perkier (she hates it when she misses cheaters).
now, i'll tell you why this gets on my nerves so much (and not just cos the bites have me irritable). nigeria is the sixth largest opec oil producer (and the 12th largest altogether). and that is no small feat. i have looked on that list and some countries don't even feature. and i am pretty sure that you have to be producing a lot of oil to be considered worthy of opec. i mean, all that oil producing and the lights are constantly going off in lagos? come now!
and then there was talk recently of obasanjo trying to change the constitution so that he could run for a third term as president of this nation of constant power cuts. this man ran on a platform of bringing uninterrupted power flow to lagos by the end of his term and they have blackouts, like every damn day. can you believe the nerve of this man? they got the lights on in liberia. they don't have oil AND they are just coming out of a war. and i cannot have a decent chat with my roommate without being cut off.