power out

yesterday the power went out.  the power goes out often on the island and i've heard many friends complain about it whilst living here.  they're in the middle of cooking dinner and the power goes out - can't finish cooking - meal goes to waste.  it was out so long that they lost all of their food in the fridge - think hot summer months and the milk goes sour.  they couldn't finish the laundry while their little one was napping - not so bad but a nuisance nonetheless.  we've been fortunate to live in a hotel with a generator and haven't had these problems.  even during the hurricane we had intermittent power throughout the day.  but yesterday when the generator tried to start it failed after several attempts of the maintenance men trying to turn it on.  the fans and lights inside would start up weakly and then falter.

the lights at the foot of these villas tells me that they're either solar powered or that their connected with the generator that was working at the hotel next door.

we ended up being without power like most of our neighbors for many hours and when it was sunset time we headed out to the balcony where there was more light and made lanterns for the evening inside.  we don't light candles on a regular basis - although i would like to - in the past i've forgotten to blow them out and michael is afraid i'm going to set the house on fire.

last night we had a reason to light them so we finally used up the materials we have to make these glass jar lanterns i've seen on some blogs out there but cannot remember where.  i won't be bringing these jars back with us to america so it was a nice feeling to use them for a purpose i had always wanted to - other than the usual painting jar purpose they've been fulfilling.

i made a few and ezra made one.   i glued the pieces of transparent paper and he stuck them on.  

it was a magical moment when we lit up his lantern - making me want to light candles everyday.  hmmm.  maybe we will start again at dinnertime! 

he also enjoyed the specialness of the night getting to use the flashlight for a real reason not just for play. we even went to 'rescue' daddy who would be walking up the stairwell and down the pitch black corridor to get home after 7:00.  we timed it perfectly (neither of us have cell phones anymore in case you're wondering) and met him in the stairwell before he would have to walk from memory to our door. we had about an hour together with our candlelight before the power came back on.  we were worried about the food in the fridge and put it in the freezer.  we were grateful when the power came back on and we didn't lose all the food and were able to heat up the soup i had made yesterday.  if we had lived here for 20 months with frequent power outages i'm sure they would've lost their mystique.  it was fun though last night and made for a fun evening together after a long day at home.