At first I didn’t mind the rain, it was actually kind of exciting. I love watching big storms and being right in the middle of a downpour, especially when I’m in an exotic place, but I never really considered how big an impact rain can have when one is living a relatively simple life. For instance, I ran out of clean clothes after about one week, and considering that my laundry facilities include two buckets that I manually dunk my clothes into over and over again until they are clean and several clotheslines outside my house for drying my clothes, laundry became quite an issue. I could get my clothes clean, but getting them dry was near impossible. I dried my underwear and socks inside, which took a minimum of three days, and resorted to wearing the same two pairs of pants and the same two shirts day after day. The reality was that I had no other options. It was, however, a bit of wakeup call for me because the rainy season begins in June and ends in September, so there is certainly more of the same to come.
As if two weeks of non-stop rain wasn’t bad enough, matters were made worse by a long stretch without electricity. At first it was kind of fun having blackouts here and there. I would usually light a few candles and play guitar or write. There is something about candlelight that really gets my creative juices flowing and makes me feel inspired. I wrote a few songs that I think are quite good and for the first time since I arrived here I started plugging away at a book that I’ve been working on. But that was just at first.
When I woke up on day four the electricity was still off. I went to school, taught my classes in a fairly half-assed manner considering that preparing for work was exponentially more difficult without power, and returned home at the end of the day to find my apartment still had no electricity.
I decided to go to the market to kill some time and because I was actually about to run out of candles (I had half of one left). In town the power was also out, but the shops remained open, lit by candlelight when customers entered, but otherwise draped in darkness. I went from shop to shop searching for candles, but every single shop in town was sold out. I couldn’t believe that it was actually possible for the electricity to be down for four straight days and for no one to have any candles to counter this rather significant problem. Finally, in one of the last stores on the strip I found a small package of six tiny candles for twenty ngultrum (about 50 cents), so I bought them and returned home only to find that the power was back on.
I sat at my table and watched a bit of a movie on my computer as it charged. I took three of the candles I had just purchased and stuck them to the table at various locations, and no sooner had I secured the last of the three than the power went out again. I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. At first not having electricity hadn’t bothered me in the slightest, then I had become quite frustrated by it, and then all I could do was laugh at the absurdity of the situation. I had waited three and a half days for the power to come back on, and when it finally did, it was for less than twenty minutes, and then I was once again left in the dark. I lit the candles, turned off my computer to conserve the battery, picked up my guitar, and wrote another song.
wow. i am enjoying your blog. this electricity story is quite a hoot, probably not necessarily in the moment and after all those days without it or showers. thanks for sharing your days on this blog. i'm looking at the bhutan canada foundation teaching program and your blog is great for part of my research into considering this adventure. blessings, lisa
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading, Lisa. I'm happy to share my experience with you and anyone else who is considering embarking on this adventure. Feel free to so ask me any questions you may have.
ReplyDeleteNick
I sent in my resume' and application. Now I have to wait until after June 11th to see what next steps are necessary. How did you choose this adventure for yourself? Feel free to email me at breathe.and.smile@gmail.com to continue the conversation so that it does not have to be back and forth on comments. I hope you are feeling better!
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Lisa