Strange Things Happen When the Power Goes Out

This is just a funny story that I wanted to share.

So on thursday 3 new girls arrived from the United States to join my exchange program until June. We (the current exchange students) decided to meet the girls at the airport along with their host families. 

It was about 7:30 PM and the afternoon rains had kept going into the night, almost becoming torrential. My cousin Sharone said he would drive me down to the airport, which is about 10 minutes from our house, so we set off into the night. 

We got to the bottom of the hill our house is on and were turning onto one of the main streets in Quito, when all of a sudden there was a massive, nation-wide blackout. All the streetlights, shop fronts and traffic lights went off, all at once. Suddenly we had been plunged into darkness, car headlights being the only source of light. We kept going, despite the fact that the rain made for nearly zero visibility. Driving was pretty scary because of the lack of traffic lights, intersections became a complete free-for-all, horns blared constantly above the sound of the rain hammering on the roof and near misses became normal. 

Eventually we arrived at the airport, which had a few lights on thanks to a generator, and met up withe the girls. We all got introduced and then they went their separate ways. Now here is where things get interesting...

Sharone had dropped me off and went back to the house, so I caught a taxi. I got to my house without any problems and paid the driver. I have to explain the layout of my house briefly for you to fully understand the story. It is one building, made up of two connected houses and an apartment above them. Around the entire building, the lawn, and the parking space there is a wall with a garage door and a smaller metal door. Alright, so I always have the key to the metal door, so I went in through there. Then at the house there is another metal door and behind that the wooden front door. The metal door was open so I went to the front door but strangely that was looked. I don't carry the key to that door, so I went round to the kitchen door, tried the handle, but that was locked too. I went back to the front door and knocked, and waited, and knocked again and waited some more. I heard some hushed voices talking quickly behind the door and then some one said, "Who are you!?"

A bit taken aback by tone of voice, I paused then answered, "uhhh...Adam...?". More hushed voices behind the door. Then finally the door was opened a little and a face peered from the darkness, they couldn't see who I was, and they opened the door wider. Instantly several cell-phones were thrust into my face, blinding me momentarily, but giving those behind the door light to see who I was. There were a few sighs and the phones were moved away from me. With what little light there was I made out my Mom, two of her friends, my grandmother and Sharone, all crowded around the doorway. I saw the blue light from a phone reflect off something metal in Sharone's hand, I looked closer and my heart skipped a beat when I saw that he was holding a 10 inch kitchen knife. I looked around saw that he was not the only one armed, in fact everyone had something in hand, knives, canes, rolling pins, you name it they were armed to the teeth.

A few minutes I was still trying to wrap my head around what had happened, my Mom saw this and offered an explanation. Here is the gist of what she said.

She first explained to me that the power goes out in parts of the city pretty regularly, I knew this, having lived here for almost  months. She went on to say that when the power goes out, muggers and robbers take advantage of the dark and go on mini-crime sprees. So when I opened the metal door outside the house, she had been in the basement and had heard the grating of the lock, she then heard footsteps go to the front door, try it and then walk back. She went into panic mode and called everyone in the house to arm themselves and get to the front door because there was a burglar. Looking back I can imagine that when I uncertainly said my name to the voice behind the door, it aroused suspicions that some burglar had learned my name and was trying to trick the family. Hence, I was greeted with a family armed and ready to do battle. I am glad they decided to see who I was before attacking, things could have ended rather badly for me. 

In retrospect this whole incident was rather comical, but at the time, I can assure you it was quite serious for both parties. We were without power for another 3 hours or so. It turned out that indigenous people somewhere had attacked the national power grid and cut a whole bunch of cables, and then there was a lighting strike.

Welcome to Ecuador. 

The Happiest Day of My Life

So I realized I have been pretty bad about my blog lately, I am overdue for about 3 posts. So heres one that I have been wanting to write for few days. Its about what I think might have been the happiest day of my life. 

It was the day after Christmas, and it started like any other of the days I spent in Coca. I slept until about noon and got up in time for lunch. I was so relaxeded having been in Coca for 3 days. I hadn't worn shoes the whole time, I only put on a shirt for meals and I didn't care the slightest bit about what I looked like. It was great. 

Things got off to a good start at lunch. I loved all the food we got at the hotel, and I ate tons. Usually I had to ask for second or third plates, I am a growing boy you see. But this day was different. The waiter, Sandro, had been the only one working all week so he had become accustomed to my eating habits. He brought out everyone else's meal, as normal, then he brought out this mountain of food for me. I was so happy, but I still had to have another plate. I could tell this was going to be a good day. 

After lunch we lay around in the sun for a while, relaxing, digesting, thinking of what to do with the day. Eventually it was decided that we should go to a waterfall about an hour and a half from the city. But first we needed to swap pickup trucks with my brother who was out working on a farm not far away. 

I rode in the back of the truck as I had become accustomed and we set off. We flew down a road that seemed to stretch on forever. I was standing up holding on to the big metal bar the ached over the truck bed, the wind tore at my face, pressing my sunglasses hard against my nose. Every now and again a small fly or other insect would smash into one of the lenses and meet its demise. The sun bounced from cloud to cloud as we rocketed through the countryside , a moment of warmth on my back followed by a moment of cool. 

In what seemed like the middle of nowhere we turned off the road and through the gate of a small farm. Driving on a mud track past a few old buildings, then a tiny pond, it felt like we had taken a wrong turn. But sure enough there was Robert, and the truck, stuck in about a foot and a half of mud. So the task at hand changed from simply changing cars, to getting this one out of the deeps ruts made by spinning tires. I pushed the back of the car, along with my two brothers and some farm hands while my Mom spun the tires in vain, splattering all of us with mud. 

After about 15 minutes of pushing and heaving the truck finally moved foreword, but not without thoroughly covered all of us with mud and exhaust smoke. I looked down at myself. I looked like some kind of brown spotted animal. But I really wasn't feeling like spots, so I smeared them into long streaks all over my body and became a tiger. 

For whatever reason we didn't end up changing cars, but tigers don't worry about things like that, so I just climbed up to my previous position and waited for us to get moving again. Turning back onto the road we headed back the way we had come, towards Coca. People on the side of the road stared more than usual as this blonde haired, tiger striped lunatic, flying by in the back of a pickup truck. Whenever we came to a speed-bump in the road, of which there were many, the other motorists and vendors on the sidewalk would whistle at me, I couldn't help but laugh at this and my smiling made them smile and laugh even more. My positive energy seemed contagious. 

We passed Coca, and headed for the waterfall. The landscape slowly changed from fields and open space to dense forrest on both sides of the road. We sped over rolling hills, and around corners, rarely seeing anyone else on the road. I was still standing up in the back of the truck the air rushing through my hair like a hundred tiny fingers. My mind wandered, I thought about what would happen if we were to have an accident, and narrowed it down to two situations. The first being that I would fly through the back window of the tuck, and then probably out the front then land in some jungle with a smile still on my face. The second, I would be thrown clean out of the truck, sail through the air doing somersaults and waving my arms like a mad man, then land somewhere in the jungle, all the while with that stupid grin plastered across my face. It did seem like a bad way to go at all...

Luckily we had no accidents. After a while the sound of the wind battering my ears became too much and I lay down. The sun kept dancing above, kissing my face with its warm rays. It seemed like every cloud had a silver lining, maybe they all do, you just have to look at them the right way? I was completely euphoric. I couldn't remember a time when I felt this free, this happy, this alive. I thought to myself about happiness. How could I possibly be this happy? Then I looked at myself, mentally, physically, and spirituality and everything made sense. 

Everyone is different, but this is how I defined happiness that day. I believe that everyone is happy. We are born happy but then as we grow, the light of happiness gets blocked out by the burdens of life. Stress. Work. Debt. Worry. They all dim the light within us just a little bit, and together these things can put us almost in the dark. Since I have arrived here in Ecuador, I cannot remember being stressed once. The fact that I don't need any of the grades I earn here makes a world of difference. I haven't worked a job since the summer. Whenever something gets me down, or worries me, I just have to look at where I am, this opportunity I have been given, and all negatives pale into insignificance. Being in Coca took me to another level of relaxed. I didn't have to get up at 5 every morning, I didn't have to think about what clothes to wear, let alone bundling up against the cold and rain. Everything was new to me, everything fascinated me. I was free. 

My deep philosophical thoughts were interrupted as we neared the waterfall. The dirt road rounded hills and crossed streams. We had met up with two other pickup trucks of people, friends of Fernando. 

The whole time at the waterfall was kind of a blur. I swam, jumped and played like I do, but after not too long I got out, dried off and picked up my camera. I spent the next hour and a half or so taking photos. Crouched over pebbles, trying to catch the water drops as they exploded rhythmically against the rocks. Centimeters away from a line of ants climbing a vine, snapping away to get the perfect close up shot. Waiting patiently for the parrots to come out of the caves where they lived in the side of the rock. I stood around, taking photos, oblivious to my surroundings, I don't know how many different insects were eating my feet, but it didn't matter. In our hurry to leave Quito I had forgotten my malaria pills, but I'm still here, so far. 

Fernando snapped me out of my shutter induced trance, telling me that we were leaving. I looked around and everyone had already packed up and gone. On the way back to the cars I noticed the sun go behind a really cool cloud, the sky was turning pink and the golden beams of light seemed to go out in all directions from behind it. So obviously I took my camera back out and slipped back into my semi-conscious state of fiddling with apertures, shutter speeds and pressing the silver button. 

While we were pulling away from the side of the road, a man came running to the truck and tapped on the window. He asked Fernando if he and his family could get a ride back to the main road. He happily agreed and this family of 8 piled in the back with me. They had been picking fruit from a huge tree all day. They called them Coca grapes, and they did look pretty much like grapes. I had with me a few pods of a plant called Guaba. Its a long, green, circular pod about 2 inches in diameter and usually a few feet long. Inside the pod there are these cylinders of what looks like soggy cotton balls, they feel like cotton when you are eating them too but they are sweet and delicious. Inside the flesh is a long black seed, which you have to throw away (its too big to spit). Anyway the family shared their grapes with me and I shared my Guaba with them, we talked for a little bit, but soon the conversation died and everyone just ate the delicious fruit and took in the atmosphere. 

When we arrived at the town where the family lived we all said our goodbyes and they got out. The father went back up to the window with some money in his hand and asked Fernando how much he owed for the ride. Fernando just smiled and said the man owed him nothing. Returning the smile the man passed a grape vine, laden with the fruit, through the window. Before we started moving again, one of the little girls ran back to me and gave me a huge handful of grapes. What had happened was a thing of kindness, and of human interaction in its most basic form. I didn't think my mood could have gotten any better, but it had. 

The ride back was quite. The sun had set by this point and the stars were out. I lay staring up at the them, the stars which I had not seen in over a hundred days in Quito. But here they were bright and plentiful, as if someone had poked a thousand holes in the night sky letting the happiness of the universe shine through. 

It poured with rain for a few minutes as we passed under a particularly large patch of starless sky. I love the rain. I just lay there, in nothing but swimming trunks and took it all in. The bug bites on my legs and ankles didn't bother me, neither did my slight sunburn, with patches of white skin where my tiger stripes had been. 

I think this was the happiest day of my life.