Due to high unemployment and low wages, most families can only afford enough electrical units to allow for a few days per month with electricity. The woman with whom I spoke that afternoon told me about how the electricity actually seemed to distance her from her spouse. She said that her husband often used the electricity for the television and the radio, while she would rather use electricity units for the refrigerator or for lighting the home during the night. She also said that the electricity distracted the family in general. Rather than helping with chores, her husband would rather listen to the radio.
Some complaints are universal.
For this family and others, this seemingly beneficial technology caused more problems than it solved. Another village woman told me that she was raising her grandson because her adult daughter was working in the city to support the family in the village. Mixed generational families are very common due to the struggling economy and the AIDS epidemic. Many families consist of aunts or adult siblings who care for young children who are orphaned by the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. Although the campaign to combat the transmission of HIV has been very aggressive, many people in the villages and cities, as in the U.S., still believe that AIDS infection cannot happen to them.