QARDA, 22 September 2006 — Residents of this town in Fayfa Province were facing the prospect of going through Ramandan sans electricity after a lighting bolt knocked out their power, the Al-Watan daily reported yesterday.

Indeed, more likely than not, if the power wasn’t back on by Monday, getting fast-weary Saudi Electricity Co. employees out during the Holy Month would likely become a feat of futility.

Realizing this, the residents affected by the broken transformer hounded SEC officials to get off their behinds and get the power back on.

The SEC responded and went into action. The company arrived with the power transformer, then looked at where it needed to be placed: Off the main road, through some trees, on top of a large mountain through some more trees.

But first, the heavy chunk of metal had to be levied up a retaining wall that holds the mountain’s earth from tumbling onto the road. In other words: The 1,180-kilogram chunk of metal would have to be hand carried about 100 meters.

Forget it, the workers said, and dumped the transformer on the road.

The residents offered to pay the SEC employees more money if they would finish their job, but they refused.

In the end, the residents had to rally together for the task as if it were a Stonehenge tablet — using chains, pulleys and rods to slowly but surely drag the enormous metal box in the 45-degree (114F) Saudi summer heat.

After the transformer was finally put in place, the residents had to — of course — call the SEC to get workers out there to actually hook the thing up.

The Saudi Electricity Company refused to comment on the incident — probably for good reason.