In the Dark

Our kids with the birthday girl

By outside standards, electricity is never great on Clove Island. Generally these days, there had been a pattern. Most mornings there will be power, most afternoons there won’t be power, and every third evening there won’t be power. It isn’t a great schedule. Our overall hours of power per day has gone back down to less than half the time, but at least it is a schedule.

Wednesday evening we didn’t have power. We did everything by candle and lantern light. But then we knew-- two evenings of power will follow. We weren’t the only ones counting on it.

On Wednesday and again on Thursday our neighbors reminded us of the birthday party on Friday evening. The birthday girl was turning one and the party was set to start after sunset. We had an early dinner with our kids and got them into their nicer clothes. Usually the power came on around 6pm. But 6pm and 6:30pm passed with no power. Usually if the power isn’t on by 6:30pm, it won’t come on until 10pm.

I went over to the neighbors. “We’re waiting for the power,” they said.  “It is coming at 7pm today,” someone added.

So I went home and started reading to the kids, wasting time until 7pm. 7pm passed. At 7:45pm, I went back over to the neighbors. “So are you going to have the party tomorrow?” I asked. “No, we’re just waiting for the power!” they insisted again.

Then I saw the little birthday girl in her cute little dress. I saw their living room all decorated and with all the furniture taken out. I saw all the restless kids jumping around in the completely dark room. All the adults were downcast.

Party guests in the dark (with flash)

Rich people will just call the electric company and offer a large sum of money to have the power turned on for their party or gathering. But these neighbors aren’t rich. They just wanted to celebrate their little girl. They couldn’t bribe the electric company so they found a broken generator and tried to get it working.

I grabbed the birthday girl and took her to our house to get Grace and Peter. David was already heading for bed, but Grace and Peter could at least join our neighbors in the wait as an act of solidarity. I snapped some pictures of the birthday girl and her guests, no doubt more would come to dance once the power came on and the music started.

The minutes ticked by...the generator never worked, but they kept trying.

Around 8:30pm Grace decided to go to bed. Peter held out until around 8:45pm.  The power came on a little after 9pm. A few seconds later the music started blaring across the street, but our kids were fast asleep.
I was readying my apologies for my kids’ absence when the neighbor came with a plate of the party food for my kids to enjoy the next morning. There were no hard feelings-- we had come, we had waited with them, we had given their birthday girl special attention and notice, we had honored them. Hopefully next time we’ll actually get to have fun with them too.

Our former teammates & our kids

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We had a wonderful time with two of our old teammates who came to lead a seminar for our team. We gained and will continue to gain a lot from the things we learned about sharing stories with islanders. Plus personally, we loved the opportunity to have quality time with our good friends.
Grace lost her first tooth! Peter has learned to write all his big letters! David is learning to go on the potty! It is fun to see our kids growing and learning.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We finished our seminar on telling stories-- pray that we would debrief well what we learned so we could apply it here. Our team is learning a lot! It’s kind of overwhelming.  Pray that we would be able to continue to learn, grow and apply what we learn in helpful ways. Pray that we would be united as team in this process. Our teammates that are currently in South Africa are expecting their new baby any day now! Pray for a safe delivery for both mom and baby and a healthy baby girl.