Thought you might enjoy dropping into the middle of a conversation.  There was a lot of chatter on line today on the "Yaounde List" about a supposed technician from the electric company who was making the rounds of missionary houses, trying to get money out of people for one alleged problem or another.  In each case he ended up asking for a bottle of whiskey since he didn't get any money!  So here is our contribution to the chatter:

This afternoon, probably shortly after Dan Seely's visitor, presumably the same man came to Shiloh.  He wore the hard hat and vest, and said he was with Eneo.  He asked us to unlock the meter box because he had to inspect the meter.  Unfortunately for him, Jim Tucker is the one who brought the key outside and unlocked the box.  He looked at the meter, then asked to see our last bill.  When we produced it, he told Jim that we are listed as a "level 1 user" but that our three phase service is set at 30 amps, and that level 1 was only for 10 amps.  He opened a notebook and showed Jim that if our bill was 60.000 F at level 1, for example, at the level we were supposed to be at, it would be above 200.000 F for the month.  Jim explained to him that the Eneo technicians set our level at 30 amps, but if he wanted to reduce it to 10 amps, we would figure out how to live with that.  After some back and forth discussion, in which he discovered that Jim was himself an electrical technician, he "called" his "boss" and "explained" to him that this man knew what he was talking about.  Three times he told the "boss" that he "could not say that because this American was also a technician."  The third time he stated that this American electrical technician actually knew more than he and the "boss" both did.  So in the end the "boss" said to leave things at 30 amps, but to get a bottle of whiskey from us.  Sadly the Eneo technician left without the whiskey.  He did leave his phone number though, because he personally wanted to have a relationship with this American technician.  He said he had to have our phone number for the form he was filling out, so we gave it to him.  Does anyone know an authentic Eneo employee who could verify if this is a scam?  

Shortly after posting this to the Yaounde List, a fellow missionary posted the name, phone number, and email address of a real Eneo employee.  We will contact him in the morning to report this scam.  Did I mention that life out here on the Dark Side of the Moon is never dull?