(...but only for 3 hours)
I write to you tonight not by candlelight, sunlight, wind-up flashlight, solar/battery powered lantern, or cell phone light, but computer light. This is one of three noteworthy events that took place today.
Let me tell you the story.
It began at 3:00 this morning when my cell phone alarm went off. I did not intend to wake up at this ungodly hour. I meant to wake up at 5:00, obviously a much more reasonable time to wake up in the middle of vacation, but I had forgotten to fix the clock on my phone and it got a little ahead of itself. I tucked the mosquito net back in and promptly fell back asleep and I think I dreamed that my friend sent me a text, because I no longer have the text and don’t remember deleting it. But I was so sure it happened. This is an interesting side effect of the malaria pills. More about that in a future post.
I was re-aroused from my slumber at the real 5:00 (although at 3:00, I guess it was 5:00 somewhere?), and was escorted to the bus station by my friend Leah, who(m) I was visiting, and her dog Chamossa, who usually likes to chase goats but this time was chased by the goats. Most of today was occupied by me transporting myself from Leah’s site to my site, which is quite a process, involving 4 different bus rides (2 hours, 4 hours, 1 hour, 0.5 hours) and a lot of bravery, since it was my first time traveling by myself in Africa. I would have liked to have conversed with the people who were sitting around me/on top of me/underneath me (apparently, being so squished together that you are interlocking legs with a stranger and your knee is jamming into their crotch for 2 hours does not automatically lead to friendship), but I was using up all my energy pretending to be brave that I didn’t have any left to start any philosophical conversations. That will be a goal for my next solo trip. Today my goal was just to arrive home.
The second monumental event of the day actually began last night when I witnessed someone light charcoal in less than two minutes without burning a plastic bag, which is the traditional method here. Perhaps I have not told you how much trouble I have had lighting charcoal. To give you some idea, I would estimate that the first two weeks at site, I spent about 16.4% of each day fighting to get it lit and then stay lit. This acquired skill is crucial to survival, because every meal that cannot be eaten raw (I should try making sushi) must be prepared on the charcoal stove. But after witnessing this miracle yesterday, I went home today and tried this new method for myself, and within 14 minutes, my entire 8 by 8 inch charcoal stove was ablaze! And no one was around to see it. I celebrated by making rice pudding for dinner. Actually, that was just the only food I had in the house.
Then, at around 18:24 hours, in the heat of the charcoal-lighting moment, something else was suddenly ablaze behind me. It was the electricity in my house! For years, it has been all wired up and ready to light people’s lives, but the town never turns on the electricity for some reason, and I just assumed the generator was broken. But alas, my bedroom light is shining for the first time since I first laid eyes on the darkness around it, and I am typing on my computer as it is being charged.
Dear reader, I have never appreciated electricity as much as I do now.
Let me tell you a secret: any of you can do what I’m doing. Living without electricity and running water is just something you get used to. However, I no longer want to be Laura Ingalls Wilder. Candles light up a room much more than I realized, but there’s nothing as bright as a ceiling light that turns on with a switch. Bucket baths save water and get you clean, but there’s nothing like a waterfall-like stream of water pounding on your skull. I resolve to not take these things for granted anymore.
Mi favouritou... until now
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