Electrical Reconfiguration

As it turns out, the incident I wrote about last week was only the first in a series of episodes of extremely high voltage entering our property and burning out many lights and electrical devices. With rising costs to repair or replace these items necessary for our basic office functions, and damages occurring faster than we could keep up with, I realized that since my director is out of the country, it was up to me to find a way to resolve the crisis. I love how my job challenges me to venture into previously unexplored fields, such as, in this case, electricity!

I asked my co-workers about several possibilities, until Olino, our electrician, said he thought one of them would be feasible. The hospital on our property already has a generator which monitors the incoming electricity and switches itself on to power the hospital instead whenever the main voltage is too high, too low, or nonexistent. Plans were already in the works to connect the rest of the property to this generator system, pending my director’s return with underground cable. But Olino devised a temporary solution to accomplish this same objective using our existing above-ground power lines. Our director approved it and drew out detailed designs, which I conveyed to Olino in order to flesh out our plan and purchase the necessary supplies.

Our whole team threw its energies behind this urgent project, which took precedence over fixing the growing list of damaged devices which might simply be destroyed again on the same unreliable electrical supply. Thursday was the big day in which we all gathered around to support Olino in various ways as he climbed a ladder balanced from a truck against the electric post (no cherry-picker here!) to reconfigure the electrical lines. By mid-afternoon, all was in order, and we held our breaths as he flipped on the switch to the new system. By God’s grace, everything worked beautifully! Please join us in thanking the Lord that our problem of high voltage is resolved and that no one was injured in the process. Now we will focus on repairing or replacing everything that burned out.