No Hay Luz

We have frequent power outages here in Petén. The main reason is that there is no redundancy, therefore we all share one long extension cord, and if anything happens along that cord, everybody afterwards loses power. We are constantly losing power because of something that happens in P0ptun, 45 minutes south of us.

Because of this you learn to cope, and you have to realize that after dark, things can happen to cancel your plans. Tuesday night, during the adult/teen Bible Study, the power went off just as we got to point/question 1 of 10. It was dark, but nobody made a move to get up. I turned my flashlight on and finished that point. Still, nobody made a move. Then I saw shadows towards the back and realized people where still arriving (late as usual). I was surprised, thinking that no power would be an excuse for people not to come, but I continued on. After another point I had the idea to back my truck up and use the headlights to light the place so I did that until the lesson was done.

Not wanting my battery to die, I turned off the lights and asked if there were any questions. Just so you know, there are NEVER any questions. For some reason nobody asks for any clarification. I think it is fear somebody will laugh at them. In the states everybody secretly hates the person that asks questions because it makes you go longer when you just want to go home, but Tuesday night in the dark it seemed everybody had a question. And not about the lesson. The first question was why God made people different colors...

So we continued that way in the dark for another 30 minutes. We might have to turn the lights off during question and answer time more often...