So, it has been a crazy last few days. We have been waiting for Peace Corps news and still have none. However, we got a taste of life in a developing country this weekend!
I (Anne) was off to Arizona to resettle our 97 year old mother closer to my sister and nasty weather came to visit Indiana in the form of single digit temps and ice covered everything. In our absence the power to our neighborhood went out last Friday morning. That means no heat, no cooking, no internet, no tv, movies or music. For fear the house would get too cold and freeze pipes, we drove back from Michigan by midnight. The house was already below 60 degrees, so we bundled up, set an alarm to get up and check it 3 hours later and went to sleep. By 7 am the temperature was down near 50 so off we went to the neighborhood building supply store to purchase a gas fireplace insert. Not what I had planned to get for Christmas, but, heat is heat! We stayed busy Saturday cleaning up the yard and reading, and helped the local economy by eating out. It gets dark around 5pm here and that was a little early for bed so we played scrabble by flashlight and read in front of the fireplace, where we had spread our sleeping bags and blankets on the floor. The storm continued to rage through the night with tree limbs falling on the ground and the roof. By 5 am it was 50 degrees so we started up the gas fire again and curled up on the floor. By daylight we headed off to breakfast and a warm place for most of the day. Had dinner with good, kind friends who had their heat back on and came home to lights, internet and HEAT. Wow, how used to electricity we are! Now I think we are more aware of what we may encounter in our assigned area, which...we still don't know. Maybe soon......