Oct. 7: The Blackout

Now blackouts aren’t all the uncommon here. In fact the power is turned off every day in the afternoon to conserve on energy, which isn’t a big deal because the classrooms have enough natural light coming in, but after the sun goes down it becomes a challenge.

Every day the 6^th-12^th graders have “prep time” (which is study hall) in their classrooms from 5:45 until dinner at 7:30. This is also when most music lessons take place, so kids are always going in and out for piano, guitar and choir. Today we had a pretty good thunder storm roll through. Once it past the power went out as the sun was going down. I had choir and enjoyed holding rehearsal with a flashlight in my hand the whole time. We had dinner by candle light, but there wasn’t enough to go around. I also got to enjoy stories of the classes huddled around the only light sources to study and chasing a mouse around the 10^th grade room. Power was out until mid morning the next day, and with no power for a long time comes no water. We spent most of the day waiting and wondering when our next opportunity to bathe and flush the toilet would be. It came in the evening thank god.