A Night to Remember

Uganda does not produce enough energy to distribute fully to all of the country all of the time. Because of this, Ugandans who are priviledged enough to have electricity have become used to the rolling blackouts that routinely impact each neighborhood. For our particular case, we had been blessed with consistant electricity for four days straight! Usually it comes and goes every other day. By the end of the fourth day both Rachelann and I were discussing our blessing when the blessing ran out. As the daylight hours drained away, bleeding away the light with it, our land was soon covered in a thick blanket of inky blackness.

We had decided to cook fish that evening and we were able to eat our whole pieces of fish under the limited power reserves of our low on power flashlights. As we sat around our pot of fish to eat, all of our flashlights execpt our tiny cell phone flashlight faded away. Our conversation was light as we tried to feel the bones of the fish with our fingers and see what we were eating.

Ugandans clean their fish but they don't take the scales, head or tail off. Rachelann was enjoying her fish head. Part of this enjoyment included plucking out the eyeball and putting it close to Javonta's food which immediately evoked a very disturbed cry from the boy. Rachelann laughed. Not seeing what she was doing I asked her to explain. She told me what she had done. As I laughed she also added that she was working at "picking the face off the fish".

We finished our meal and cleaned up just before the last light went out, plummeting us into more darkness. My American eyes are not quite used to adjusting to the darkness as the Ugandans are. I'm actually pretty amazed at their night vision.

Anyway, it was a fun night. I ended up remembering that I had a mini-maglight stashed in the closet. I finally found it after a short search. I am really thankful for the good meal that we were blessed to eat. It was sooo good. Light or no light. I am still aiming to be joyful in all situations. To enjoy the blessing even when I am experiencing things that I am not overly comfortable with or used to. It was a good time. However, I am definitely much more appreciative of electricity that I was at home!