For the last two weeks I have been experiencing problems with my generator and it has put a cramp in maintaining regular posts. Limited to no electricity is one prime challenge for writers like me who prefer to use their laptop over notebooks or journals especially when my handwriting scribbles are often hard to read.

I was a person a year ago who was writing up a storm for my last semester of college, because I was completing 40 credits in combination of classes and independent studies. I had several research papers I was working on at once and sometimes the writing urge hit me at different times of the day. Sometimes I was driven to write at a Library or coffee shop or any other WiFi location that seemed to provide me the most creative energy.

However, this flexibility has been minimized living in Liberia, because there is no electricity and the places that offer WiFi are 30 to 60 minutes–depending on traffic–away from me. I own a generator, but it is not something you can run for several hours a day. In fact, I run mine from 10PM until 3 to 4AM, because I sleep better when the sound of my fan drowns out the noise outside my window and inside my head. Fortunately, I can eke out two hours on my laptop battery, but often it is near the end of the two hours that I a really get flowing with my thoughts and then I get my warning to charge the battery. So all this can limit my creative flow.

As a western it is often challenging to adjust to world without 24/7 electricity, because have such a life somehow remains in your system. I am trying to write more on paper, but as I get going the thoughts flow faster then I can scribble. There are times I can stare a blank page or screen with several ideas swimming in my mind, but cannot select which one to write about. Well, these are some of the adjustments and challenges I still have to overcome.

I hope to have my generator back in operation this week and this can lessen some of my burdens that has interfered with my writing flow. I also hope that I can better adjust to the world I now live in to make the most of my writing adventure.