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.