Electricity

When I was young there were several times while living down on the farm that we would lose electricity. It was an adventure in those days. Mom had a big old kerosene lamp and we would get it out and play games by its light. But then we didn't have to worry too much about the food in the refigerator spoiling. Perhaps we might get cold, because, invariably the electricty never went off in the summer time! Only one time do I ever remember that losing electrical power was a major inconvenience. Christmas Eve, 1973. I had a huge dinner cooking in the oven and we lost all our power. I don't remember what we ate that eve, it just wasn't my planned meal. I do recall being enormously unhappy about it, though. Even though our meal was a candle light supper.

Haiti was another story. In the year 2008 they still don't have electricity in the area that we were in. What's more, when it was dark, which was about 6:30 p.m., there were no kerosene lamps or even candles being lit in the little houses of the city. It was just plain dark. No street lights, no house lights, no glowing neon lights advertising the local market. We were out walking around in it on several occasions. Flashlights were called for, but we were even unprepared for that. Here I never even think about such things. The compound had a generator and it ran from dark until about 10 or so. It powered up my camera batteries. But it also meant that there were no cold drinks, no ice cream on those hot 90+ days, and no hot showers. Such a little thing, electricity! On the othe hand, we had beautiful star filled evenings! And a full moon while we were there!