Electric Bills

Electric is paid on a monthly basis. The bills are in Arabic using standard numerals (not Arabic). A dictionary will help you to understand your bill. For some reason, you just kind of understand them. They normally list your meter number (which is also on your meter if you live in a multi unit type dwelling), current and previous bill amount, if it was paid, account name and number, and some other things which are not of any use to me.

This is the meter (or 4 to be more exact- the small ones). You don't really have to worry about fire because the houses are made of brick, ie it doesn't look like it would meet strict electrical standards in the West but hey, it suits its purporse. The big one on the right is the main switch to shut off all electricity in the entire building. Each apartment has their own fuse box.

Fuse box in apartment.

*Side note* I know I do this alot: When they come to shut your electricity off - no you won't get a final bill - they come to shut it off. They snatch your fuse box thingy out of your electric meter. Which is a bummer cause if your neighbor did not pay his bill and his meter runs the electricity in the hall way, then you are in the dark - pitch black dark. Did I say it was hot here? You do not want your utilities shut off, not here.

A brother (yes, a brother, masha Allah) comes out to read the meter. The bills are normally paid for the month passing. Since I know that my English is sometimes misunderstood, I will explain.

March's bill is actually electricity usage from February. Sometimes, when you move into a place, if the person before you was kind enough to leave a bill, you will get stuck with the bill, sometimes. Yes, they will expect you to pay, sometimes. I've seen this happen a few times before. Remember, you are American and you are rich even though you are Miskeen. Why? As it was explained to me: for every American dollar you receive 200 Yemen Riyal. Ok but what about the British Pound isn't that worth more than the dollar? I think the French Franc and Euro are worth more than the dollar as well.

Electricity is cheap when compared to America but after being here you won't think like an American anymore. You will want a 700YR or 800YR electric bill like the Yemeni. I know of a few incidences where they will definitely charge you more for electric if they know you are American.

Of course electricity in the summer will be more than other times of the month. Last year, I just caught on that Ramadaan is also a time when everything goes up, including your electricity bill. A bill that will normally be 900 ($4.50)YR in colder months maybe 1300YR ($6.50) in Ramadaan.

Before you get happy and say: "Oh my! The electricity is so cheap." This is normally what is paid for one or two people. Now if you have children running around who love to leave lights on, the fan running when they are not using it, use the refrigerator for air condition (leaving the door open while standing in front of it mentioning how cool it makes them feel), you have to do laundry more than once a week or similar than your electric bill will be more.

A bill in the summer (with the air running all night and sometimes during the day) for two people will run about 3000YR ($15.00) - 4000YR ($20.00) and that is very expensive but it is hot as a tanur here so... what can you do?

I normally don't run my air conditioner all day because I find it makes the heat more unbareable. If you are under the air all day when you come out of the room it makes it seem even more hot. If you just sleep with the air on and tough it out during the day, I find, it is more tolerable. Plus, who wants to be cooped up in a room all day?

*Small print* if you do not run your air during the day you will be required to take a morning, post Asr and post maghrib shower. This is the minimum allotted. The heat here is so intense your calves and the back of your knees sweat. <-- oh so do your knuckles and the front of your knees. If you try to get away with only one shower a day, it will become apparent rather quickly. BTW: powder does not help as it quickly turns into lotion.

Electricity

As salaamu alaikum wa rahmatullah

Electricity is a wonderful thing to have and have access to... LOL. The electricity here is 220v and appliances carry a 2 pin plug.

Ok. I know there are three outlets here. The one on the left is for your telephone. You use an adapter or change the outlet out to a standard American type outlet (very easy takes about 5-10 minutes). The one in the middle is for cable. Yes, they have cable. You see the shackiest houses (that look like goat pens) with a satellite dish on top. The one on the right is the electrical outlet. The swith on the side enables you to turn the outlet on and off.

When coming from the West it is necessary to have converter plugs to convert from 110v to 220v. If you must, I mean must bring appliances with you, bring them. In my opinion it is better to buy them here or purchase 220v appliances in America. Why? Because you are reliant upon converter plugs (sometimes the fuses burn out). I have a few converter plugs and make constant du'a (there you go - another opportunity to implement the Sunnah) that they don't get damage or anything like this. Fuses, you can buy. Where? I don't know. They do sell fuses here but the ones I have come across do not work. I am not saying you can't find them. You probably could. It just requires a little extra work on your behalf.

You can buy quality appliances here in Yemen. The funny thing is they are American products like: Black and Decker, Panasonic, etc and in America these probably wouldn't be considered quality but here, "It's usooly (us-sully). It's #1!" This is the sales pitch for anything American or French or Italian or .....

Funny thing is they have products here from Korea, China and Japan. I (having said understanding of Asian products) didn't really know there was a difference between them but here they will sell you something from - let's say China- and tell you why it may be #2 as compared to Korea and Japan.

Anyway, the outlets sometimes require an adapter in order to plug anything in (this seems to happen when the plug is kind of old and the pins inside get rusty). You can either change the whole outlet out (which is not hard to do at all) or you can buy the adapters. The adapters (which are probably made in China) are really uhh, uhm cheap, yeah let's say that. They are really cheap and will sometimes give you a few sparks or sometimes a whole lot of sparks.

Don't mind the rust. It happens when you live near the beach. These are the adapters (fused I might add) that you use for the plug up top. Some American appliances don't require converter plugs (like laptops they use both 110v and 220v) and you just plug them in. During the fireworks (see below) this whole thing was orange.

One night (in the blazing hot summer when you need an air conditioner unless you want to sleep in a pool of sweat) I had the air conditioner running. Maa fee mushkilah (no problems uhh?). Well, my air conditioner started surging (the normal noise would go to a high pitch then a low one). This woke me from my sleep. I looked over at the adapter (to which my converter plug was plugged in) and noticed something my half-way-sleeping-mind could not register. When I shook the beans around a few times I realized the mushkilah my adapter had orange sparks shooting out of it (I suppose similar to the way gunfire would look) and my poor converter plug was being electrocuted. I ran over and tried to save its life (remember I said you rely on these things for your American appliances) but it had already melted. Yes, I said melted. The heavy metal pins had melted in the #2 adapter from China. Oh Joy!!!!

Side view of the converter plug. Looks good, ay?

Wrong!!!

Here's another look with the flash. All that green and black stuff that looks like it should not be there is the melted down plug w/missing pin.

This is the converter post eletrocution. The plugs on the right are for 110v switching to 220v and the one on the left is for 220v switching to 110v. This is a step up step down converter. It steps up to 220v and steps down to 110v. I heard they are using 110v in Saudi (some places anyway) now and Allahu A'lim.

Because this is Yemen and masha Allah tabaarak Allah, la hawla wa la quwwata illah billah, the people are masha Allah very crafty (in a good way) and good with their hands. Insha Allah, I will find someone who will be able to fix it so I am not disposing of it.