Powerless, Sleepless and Sweaty

The power in Tanga goes out once or twice a week for about fifteen minutes or so. When it happens, we all walk around the house turning off the major appliances so they don’t break when the power comes back on. A little later it comes back and everyone returns to business as usual.

Last night, however, was a different story. The power went out around 7:30pm and stayed out. Like most evenings, it was incredibly hot and sticky, with only an occasional breeze. I managed to sweat through all of my clothes and was more than slightly irritable in my discomfort.

While sweating, I was thinking about the 1st grade teacher I worked with this week. I remember she told me she was really tired because she hadn’t been sleeping well. When I asked her why, she told me that she doesn’t have air conditioning and doesn’t like to have a fan (I didn’t really understand why, but it sounded like it’s because they are noisy and keep her awake). She also had an itchy heat rash covering her whole body that she is constantly scratching. Anyway, thinking about the many families that live every day without air conditioning or fans in this weather was very humbling.

When the power finally came back on I went to take a shower, crawled into the other non-soaked half of the bed, flipped over my pillows and went to sleep……for about two hours, before the power went out again. I spent the next hour listening to a huge thunderstorm outside, hoping that the housekeeper was fast asleep because thunder scares her half to death.

Thankfully it wasn’t a weeknight and I was able to sleep in this morning. I hope I have enough energy for the game today!