Are you afraid of the dark? This is a serious question you need to answer for yourself if you are considering joining the Peace Corps. The answer is simple: you will find yourself sitting in the dark. For instance, this very moment, I’m currently sitting in the dark at my office. Granted, some countries do not use electricity widely like Georgia. We have electricity in most places but are also not immune to power outages. Although they are not a daily occurrence, they happen from time to time.
Thankfully, I’m using my laptop at work today instead of my desktop. Therefore, I’m taking advantage of the battery juice that I have left. The power went out around noon today and I do expect it to come back within 30 minutes or so. Typically, the power outages are in 1-hour increments at best. I’m grateful that they do not derail my day, they simply postpone my activities. Unfortunately, the room I do sit in at the office gets dark. We have wooden shutters for the windows and we use them in the winter. I never asked why, but my assumption is for heat conservation.
I do have to admit that power is much more stable in the city than it is in the villages. During PST, each time it was rainy and/or windy, there was an overwhelming possibility that the power would go out. Believe me, Georgia has a lot of rain in all four seasons. My PST host family did not do much to prepare for such events. They simply lit up one candle and called it a day. A skinny, measly candle at that. I’m not talking about Yankee Candles here. They didn’t fuss or come up with contingencies.
Justin and I have heard in advance about these scenarios, so we prepped for it. We bought a solar panel light and two headlamps from Amazon. They came in handy nearly on a daily basis during training. When our host family discovered our big solar light, they were ecstatic. The solar light solved the problem of a dark dinner. We ate comfortably during those nights around the dining room table. Our headlamps came in handy every night when we walked to the outhouse or did homework.
One day a few weeks into training, the power went out around 6 or 7 p.m. Because it was April or May, it was already dark outside. Justin and I had our dinner and finished our homework. With no internet and no electricity, I was so bored. My entertainment solution: going to bed early. No joke, I literally went to bed before 8 p.m. that night because I had nothing else to do. I wasn’t even sleepy. Thankfully, I was able to sleep through the entire night and was extremely well rested the next morning.
Here is another anecdote, Justin and I come home and it was super windy with heavy rain. I had a feeling that the power was going out, so I pulled out the headlamps. Justin was even better. He looks at me and said, “The power will go out in 3…2…1.” Sure enough, the second he put his index finger down, the power went out like magic. He was able to hone his super power skills to the millisecond. If the power went out in California, we would fret and probably demand a partial refund from our power supplier. In reality, I don’t know what I would do because it never happened. But when it happens in Georgia, we remain calm because more than half the time, it is out of our control.
Since I’ve come to site, the power only went out a couple of times at night. The lights flicker, but that is probably the most of it. My friends who live in villages are not as lucky as Justin and I. I believe, one volunteer did not have power for a couple of days during a heavy snow storm. It is possible that my site doesn’t have as many of these problems because the weather is milder in my neck of the woods. The other reason could be is because I live in a city with better infrastructure. I’m just grateful that I no longer have to go to the outhouse in the dark anymore.