La vie sans lumières

I’ve been absent for a while – sorry about that!  Let me explain...

Northern Cameroon does not have the four seasons that we are used to in North America.  Spring?  Nope.  Fall?  Nope.  Winter?  Absolutely not.

Though it feels like summer every single gosh-darn day with temperatures around 90º in the shade and 110-135º in the sun, the North region of Cameroon experiences two distinct seasons: rainy season (June through September) and dry season (October through May).  We are currently smack dab in the middle of rainy season, which is absolutely fantastic.  Green things are popping up out of the ground everywhere you look, the cows are getting fatter, people are busy working on their farms, and the wells are filling back up.

Catching rain on my veranda earlier this season.

It typically rains once or twice a week.  Each storm is accompanied by wild winds, which seem to temporarily blow away the heat.  The following morning is always a bit chilly (I find myself waking up with my toes tucked under my sheet, and people are sporting jackets and hats…80º mornings are hard to adapt to!).  Day by day, the clouds clear and the temperature rises steadily, until finally it becomes almost unbearably hot again.  Right when you swear that you’re about to die of heat stroke (and perhaps after a prayer to Mother Nature or a little rain dance), the wind comes and the rain falls, washing away the heat.  

I’m absolutely loving rainy season.  My cucumber, squash, and tomato plants are all thriving, I’ve been enjoying sharing veggie seeds and tomato seedlings with friends and neighbors.  And while others button up their unnecessarily bulky jackets, I savor each brisk, rainy morning by sipping hot cocoa while reading a good book.

This all being said, there is a downside to rainy season: frequent power outages.  Electricity is relatively new in Sanguéré-Paul, having been set up within the past 5-10 years.  In fact, many households are still not connected to power lines.  The power lines that do exist are, for the most part, held up by trees.  Consequently, they do not withstand the wind and rainstorms very well.  Within the past two months, I may have had electricity for a total of three weeks.  Oftentimes, the power company will come fix whatever problem they find, and then the lights are knocked out again with a new storm that very same night and the power company will not come back for another week or two. 

Though I definitely live close enough to Garoua to travel to town and charge my electronics whenever I’d like, I’ve decided to savor life without electricity.  I’ve been trying my best to disconnect myself from my laptop.  Each night, I come home and light a candle at 6:30 or 7PM.  If I haven’t already eaten dinner with Tabitha or Madame Tizi, I’ll cook up something simple or, more likely, eat some delicious care package goodies.  Occasionally I’ll pour a glass of wine and attempt to paint by candlelight, which always yields amusing results.  Then I’ll bring my candle into the bathroom for my nightly bucket bath (and let’s be real – a bucket bath by candlelight is about the most romance I’ll experience au village…especially if I warm up my water on the stove!).  Once the day's sunscreen, sweat, dirt, and dust are all washed away, I settle in nice and snug under my mosquito net, accompanied by a good book.  

Without electricity – without being so attached to my laptop – I feel as if my spirit has been refreshed.  Alone at home each night, I often find myself singing to myself, dancing, and doing a whole lot of Sudokus (thanks Pap!).  I am finding better ways to fill my time than staring at a computer screen.  Consequently, even when I do have electricity, I simply don’t feel any urgency to log on to blogger and inform the internet world (A.K.A. Ma and Gramma) of my happenings.

Live without lights, though my Cameroonian friends argue otherwise, has been a refreshing change this rainy season.  I have to admit I am still annoyed whenever I set out for a morning run to find that my iPod is nearly out of battery, but for the most part la vie sans lumières is leading to self-improvement and increased happiness.  

And that, my friends, is why I’ve been so neglectful of my blog for the past month.