...and the power goes out

Saturday was a beautiful day. After a couple weeks of dry weather everyone was really happy when the sky clouded over in the afternoon and started to rumble. As an extra loud bang indicated the lightning was getting closer to the house, I jumped out of the shower and stood safely on the mat drying myself off and watching the rain stream down the window. I like storms.


Remembering the giant TV screen in the lounge where I’d been watching a football game while exercising just a little while earlier, I felt concerned that someone should go and unplug it. Living in countries with frequent storms, power cuts, and electrical surges instilled that in me, I guess. Before I could get dressed though, the power went out, sending everything into a dusky late afternoon gloom.

My plans of putting on music while filing and painting my nails went out the window as the rain water poured in. I ran around closing things up, and checking on the other unoccupied apartments to make sure nothing was getting wet and ruined.

This building my mom lives in is actually a small apartment building, though from the outside it just looks like a big house. Since all the people renting them are working with the same organization we see each other fairly often, even if it’s just in passing.

Now with the power out everyone came into the hallways and entrance area, and stood around discussing the storm and speculating how long it would take to get the power back up. Someone wondered if it might be out all night since it was already late Saturday afternoon. There was talk of pulling out candles, and I started to feel right at home.

Back in Nepal we were having up to 14 hours of power cuts per day, and have just adjusted to that being part of life in the winter. On powerless evenings we all sit around and talk, play a game or two, watch a movie if someone still has battery on their lap top, or go up on the roof on warmer evenings. It’s nice, and I actually felt a little disappointed when the power came back on after just about 45 minutes and everyone disappeared back into their own flats.

It reminded me a bit of our center in South Africa where things like lightning, and thieves taking the copper from the electrical wires, regularly plunged us into darkness. Everyone would come out of their offices, and stand around getting a snack or a cup of tea and waiting for the power or the generator to get things up and running again. As a non office person (I ran the kitchen and food distribution services) these were often the best parts of my week.

Sometimes I think everyone could benefit from turning off the electricity for a little while, or at least shutting down the internet, computers, and television, and just taking time to talk and interact with each other. Obviously we need the power to get things done and the internet to stay in touch with the world, but we shouldn’t let it keep us from connecting with the world that’s right around us, our family, friends, and neighbours.