When the power goes out

June 29^th, 2017

As I was in the middle of writing a blog post about being sick the power went out and since my computer had no battery juice and I couldn’t see the keys I needed to type on I decided to leave my little introverted bubble under my mosquito net in my room and come out to the general living area. This week we have been staying in the Sole Hope guest house. It’s been a bit of a different but also wonderful experience. This means that we share a common living space with the other members who are staying at the guest house.

When the power goes out here there are 2 options really, one is some kind of better operated light and the other is a paraffin gas lit lantern. I knew that Miriam, my new friend who is one of the caretakers of the guest house at night, would be lighting those lanterns soon and this time I wanted to help. So, I walked out of my bedroom and sure enough she was there gathering lanterns that were scattered around the house to light them.

Miriam cracks me up. Since staying at the guest house I have found myself chatting with her for sometimes up to 45 minutes or an hour almost every night. She always says I make her crazy. Her way of saying I make her laugh a lot. She told me the other day that I am so funny and it is good because funny people stay young. Which I completely agree with. I think in the craziness of life we all forget to laugh. I don’t mean the kind of laughing where you chuckle under your breath. I mean the kind of laughter that makes your stomach hurt. The kind where you are engaging your stomach muscles so much you almost lose control of your bladder. I laugh everyday like that here and at the same time I cry everyday here too. It’s a beautiful and yet crazy place to be. Yet it is the richest feeling of life I have ever experienced.

I sat with Miriam on the floor and held up my flashlight so she could see what she was doing to light the lanterns. I don’t know if many of you have experience with gas lanterns but they are no joke. They are finicky and mean sometimes and they smell HORRIBLE. After an hour of lighting lanterns and placing them around the house we were finally done. We had fixed 3 lanterns that didn’t work because the wick had fallen down into the bottom and had to be rethreaded. We also had a minor run in with a small fire because of one of the lanterns acting up. It really makes you appreciate the things we have back home and how we usually never experience power outages. Here, the power can go out any day, anytime and for any amount of time. You really never know. Then after about 30 minutes after all the lanterns were lit the power came back on and we blew them all out. Remember what I said in my previous post about God having a funny sense of humor?