Electricity Blackout in Yaounde

View larger photo 

Today is beautiful. . . . not a cloud in the sky -- and yet - our electricity blackout continues!!!!! The weirdest thing.

The storm hit yesterday around 5:00 pm - poured for about an hour. Electricity stayed on throughout the storm. Around 6:15 - everything quieted down and cooled off. It was GORGEOUS!!!!!

We made bread yesterday - DELICIOUS -- on which, I put fantastic tuna salad (hickory smoked) thanks to the package that I received from Lorrie!!!!! Absolute AWESOME dinner. I opted to skip the Sunday night service and keep working on the menus for the next five weeks . . . we have several teams of WA construction guys coming on June 15th. I figured, I would work until about 8:45 and then, come up to the office, plug in and have a SKYPE phone conference with my sisters.

6:45 PM -- without a crack of thunder or lightening . . .the electricity just silently went off. Dead silence. This has happened before, but it usually comes back on within 15 minutes. . .like someone threw the wrong switch or something. But, nothing.

8:30 PM - the guard came by to see how I was doing. We talked for a few minutes . . .they all think it's hilarious that I am not scared of the dark. I guess the lady who lived on site before me hated the dark and would come up and sit and talk to them so that she wouldn't have to be alone in the dark. So - when Michael knocked on my door -- he said "Miss Kerry - we know you are not afraid of the dark [we've had this conversation before], but we just thought it would be wise to check on you." Made me laugh. And, maybe it was all those years in the tribe with just us and candles or something - I don't know.

I opted to watch a movie on my computer - my battery ALMOST made it to the end of the movie.  I think I have about 10 minutes left.  So, then I read using my flashlight.  I FINALLY finished Memoirs of Cleopatra -- all 1,000 pages of her!!!!  My flashlight battery was going dead -- I kept trying to bang it into cooperation.  My candle was almost out too -- so, I thought it wise to go to sleep while I still a couple of options for light in case I needed it during the night.

BIG difference in sleeping now that I've had a fan for the last month. Didn't realize how much white noise the fan has been creating. The mango tree outside my window is loaded down and has finally started dropping the fruit. Very fun, exciting, and delicious during the day . . . .very loud and annoying on a super, super quiet night. Every five minutes or so - thunk, thunk, thunk!

about 10 pm . . . I took a little walk around the compound to lock everything up for the night. WOW - the stars were just MAGNIFICENT!!!! There were literally millions of them. I looked out over the city and couldn't see anything except the shadow of the outline of the mountains in the background. As I stood there, I thought about how in the states when a city has a blackout, it just causes panic and pandemonium . . . here, it's just part of every day life. Funny isn't it? How we react when things we are used to disappear?

I woke up this morning - still no electricity. Jonas got in about 7:30 AM and said the whole city is still completely down.

The internet provider is located in Duoala - the biggest city in Cameroon -- apparently, they are systems go, because internet coverage is just fine!!!!!

Jonas has fired up our little generator so that we can do laundry from all of the rooms that we cleaned on Friday. Hopefully, we'll get power back sometime today . . . if not, I'll be in touch again in a couple of day!

LOVE!!!!

kk :-)