On power & services
Sunday morning and we slept in. Got a cup of coffee made just in time for the
morning power outage, so I can sit and work on my laptop’s battery energy
and relax a little. Everyone has a different tale about the power plant and
the schedule: who pays their bills; planned brown and black outs; totally random;
sabotaging workers; lazy workers; broken equipment—everyone is innocent;
power being sold on the black market to other nations; the German UN worker
who embezzled tons of money and let the place deteriorate beyond repair; the
lightening strike; etc. ….. Whatever the case, we have noticed a pattern
and are trying to work our lives around it, even though the UN says there will
not be a problem anymore with power in Kosovo—HA!
The stories and tales (on any topic) are one of the interesting things we are
beginning to get a feel for here. Maybe its because I am sensitive to it, as
I am reading a book that Charlie gave us before we left: “The Bridge on
the Drina” by Ivo Andric. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature for this
writing and it is definitely an insight into life and culture here-timeless.
Other tales revolve around goods and services. Mainly “services” and
the lack of customer service due to the lack of competition. It has nothing
to do with skills or attitude, just monopolies you see!?! Since I cannot “see”
this whole thing yet, I really don’t know. I do know that people love to
socialize! They complain about the lack of competition; but I don’t know
what would happen if there was more of it? They talk at coffee shops and smoke
cigarettes for hours. There is a vague cognizance of time and schedule; but
mainly not. Not that different from most developing (or in this case, “re-developing”)
nations, I suppose. Nonetheless, with all this time chatting and smoking, it’s
a wonder to me that anything gets done, really.
But ya know that’s business in lots of places. Or, maybe in most places.
My new co-worker is very much into this. She takes me everywhere, which I enjoy
a lot. We do lots of business and socializing and don’t spend much time
in the office. Just as well anyway, considering its freezing most of the time
and power is intermittent. She got an inverter, although not a good one and
it blew out one computer and her network (of 3 computers and a printer). So,
we spent time finding a better one. We run into other important people (mostly
young people) and do business over a coffee & smoke, in a warm café
with a generator. While we are there, we run into a member of the Parliament
who tells her that if she stops by in the morning (around 10) that he can get
her the latest copy of a bill they have been working on and expecting her to
translate. Makes sense she has a copy, doesn’t it? It’s gonna be their
Freedom of Information Act.
So back to the inverter. The place she bought it from won’t give her a
refund-only a credit. So, she bought a heater instead with a little more money.
The guys came to install it one day but never called her and so we were not
in the office of course! The next day they came and we were in the office, luckily.
Again, without calling though and it pissed her off. They dropped off the heater
but had no time to install it. That has to wait until another day when they
have time. Again, no competition and therefore customer service... The inverter
guys were a bit more responsive. They called ahead and since we were late getting
back to the office, she called them on her cell phone and luckily we connected—everyone
was running late! Anyway, they arrived. It’s a pretty big deal to do this
right—2 engineers came.
The power situation (for computers only) seems better now in the office. When
it goes out, we have these huge batteries that are connected to the inverter
that are supposed to give us 6 hours of juice. And it works! Next we need the
computer-repair guys to come and re-install everything and return the fried
computer and printer. We cannot print from an old printer and only one of us
at a time can get on the internet. This is driving Jim nuts as he wants to start
to re-connect everything and install stuff. Although, I am not sure what he
would really install? Haven’t found any disks/CDs yet. Someday soon, the
computer guys will come and deal with it. In the meantime, let’s see what
happens with the customer service and our patience... Maybe we will get the
heater connected instead…. All of this might keep us in the office for
a day… but then again, that might be too much isolation.
Saracstically,
Fuji