Always things to learn

I am still learning things!

The chapel at Port Durnford has electricity connected and to save Eskom the hassle of reading meters, calculating costs, printing bills, running debtor’s ledgers and monitoring debts, the current “thing” is prepaid electricity.

It is brilliant – because there are none of the costs above, the power is slightly cheaper than if it is on tap all the time. Downside is that if the prepaid electricity runs out, there is NO power until you recharge!

You are never in debt to Eskom. Now if you are not in credit – NO POWER!

In Mtunzini – on the other bank of the Umlalazi River, we don’t have prepaid electricity! The new installation at the Chapel, is an education.

Last weekend we screened (computer displaying through a projector) one of the recent General Conference sessions. When the cable was extended to the building and connected up, it came with 2 units of power, which the outside lights used up 1 unit of! We were not sure how long this 1 unit would last! Turned out we used half a unit, so there was some power left over.

I took the card through to Eskom in Empangeni to get it enabled, to buy more power. I used the pole number of the pole just outside of the chapel, and they managed to link up the card. Hopefully tomorrow, I can use the card to purchase more power tomorrow, ready for this weekend.

Something that really amazed me was that when at Eskom, most of the staff are indigenous and the PRO person I dealt with is a minority white woman. She was really pleasant and helpful. I had to wait for her to deal with a regular customer and he was giving her grief, and I got the impression that he was not the first trouble inducing customer of the day!

I spoke to her and found out that further contact face to face was unnecessary. I had to supply the account number and the card number by Email and she could link up the card. Now I can get prepaid electricity at a store like the Spar in Empangeni or even Pickand Pay.

It is sure true what “they” say – “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar!” – In other words, be pleasant ALL THE TIME! It takes less effort to smile and be pleasant than to be grumpy, and you sure get more response from a smile than from a frown. Even if you don’t get the response you want to, a smile helps you to feel better about yourself. I have the impression that modern city lifestyles are such that people are too busy to take the time to be pleasant. It is always more relaxing to greet people in store in small villages. I get the impression in cities – Durban, Johannesburg and even Richards Bay – it is a crime to smile, and if you do smile, they will call the cops and have you locked up, for insanity!