well, it would have been the epitome of my experiences here so far - but the ordeal we went thru y'day (Sunday) tested us at our very core.
Firstly, it was an unusually hot day (hotest was on Friday at 44 deg C) Gosh. On Sat, day time, I saw the temp guage and it was 41 deg. No wind. Then it got so hot that it finally rained down on the land - phew! Hot heavy raindrops and i bared them on my neck, back and head - such a wonderful respite in this sweaty balmy heat. It rained so hard. The winds went crazy, a sandstorm developed. It wasn't fun anymore. Sand gtg in your eyes and you're wondering hang on, you're supposed to be rain, not sand... what the... but no time to react. Just get in. The winds knocked down some old coconut branches that had been dangling by nature's grace. The rain pelted down hard against the purple and white pansies bush making them kneel forward onto the 3 ft walkway that leads to our verandah door.
Then they stopped and the humidity returned. All this with no electricity. We lost electricity at abt 4.30pm and we didn't have power till 5.30am the next morning! Man, a test of patience, utterance, moodiness, tolerance with one's surrounds, family members u name it. We had dinner by faint candle light cos it just so happened that we had run out of candles and were left with tea lights and a couple of lovely scented candles i had brought for the family from DC. We rationed on the UPS which only runs for 4 hours after a blackout and provides energy for two fans and some essential lights.
It was an uncomfortable night but I truly now understand what people go through when they dont have electricity - and theirs is a day to day affair. Mom and i slept right by the flywire and i kept the door wide open and the slight sways of gentle breeze lifted a sound from us every now and then. Relief. Yet the majority of the night turned to absolute humidity, heat from the ground emanating - the earth had had enough too, probably - and the already thin clothes sticking to our bodies. We woke up a few times and each time were in disbelief that only a little time had passed, from the previous time we awoke. Once we awoke at 2.45am and both of us thougt it would be at least 4 or 4.30am. We moved to the inner rooms (me back to my room and mom back to hers where dad was) and managed to find some respite in the slight breeze. At fajr time, I prayed and felt the discomfort on my body and an inner voice prayed for this unease to be lifted away from us. I was soo down, what had been bothering me was how refugees survived in survival camps, not just for days but for years!~Gosh what an ordeal. And how pple evicted from their homes felt - once where they had the comfort of their own homes to be subjected to a mass ball of abusive power and moved out to some unknown place, children away fromtheir safe regularity of life, women away from their simpole abodes where they made life livable for their families and men outraged at being forcibly pushed out of their self-made homes. That bothered me. How they must have to bear the heat, the non-electricity cos of some stupid war, making some country look 'powerful' (ha).
It was with this thought that, that simple prayer was made - that this be lifted from us and then for all those suferring this daily. I do not exaggerate, but within 5 minutes, i heard a sound. The fan in the neighbour's house started moving. I trained my ears and realised what it was. And the first thought, ahh, the elec power is back! Alhamdulillah. Then very slowly things in our house started showing signs of electrical power. You cannot imagine my relief, but slowly I went room by room, made it to the kitchen [the fridge had suffered the most - you can imagine, melted ice creams, thawed meats, stews, thawed mint chutney, soft naan bread, etc]. The fridge has a signal when it's turned on, so I turned that sound off. Dad was going through his duas and the fans we had left on in the different places were going. It had been a full 13 hours. But my prayer was heard ;)
Next morning in the newspapers and TV news, it was reported that over 40 pple were killed by lightning of the previous day - what I had thought was sweet joy of the land being cooled and in the process us too, had killed people. Others were struck by billboards. It had been worse than we could imagine. Roads were glugged by rainwater mixed with some bad sewage which had overflowed. Eeeu. Another realisation that you were in 'third world' Asia. It's a 'third world' in that it's different - neither first world nor developing (second). It's Third alright man. But look at Malaysia, it pulled itself out of third world status in just 30 years. It managed cos it wanted to.
It's now 2 days later: Tuesday 26 June. It's been raining loads. My room is the breeziest. Right now I dont need the fan on, cos it's soo cool from the after-rain mood. The rooster next door is singing again. Hmm, the cats have all disappeared. Poor babies, wonder where they have sought shelter, esp the pregnant one who was comfy and safe in our side porch.
I'm off to Islamabad tomorrow, 27th. Then on to Mansehra, where i'll volunteer for a couple of weeks. Then squeeze in some trekking in the famed kaghan valley and inshaAllah make it further to Skardu (pronounced Skarrr-doo, not 'scar-doo') if possible.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL168823.htm (We made it to Reuters Net!)
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The flipside of all this madness has been the indulgence in mangoes - all kinds! And I've even learnt the names of these :) Sindhri, Serelli, Chausa, Anwar Ratol (my favourite), Dasseri, Langhra... Every day is a mango affair :) Yum. And they don't cost me a dollar fifty each! hooray. More like a dollar for a kilo! Yes eat your heart out peoples :) hehehe
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