in the dark

counting today, its been, like, 2 weeks and a half without electricity. Well, not exactly 2 weeks. there were blackouts varying 3 to 4 days in length. Then, interrupted by the electricity turning back on for, also, varying lengths of time - from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. From 1 to 3 hours but never close to 24 hours. Its like they are toying with your feelings. this is breaking my heart.

from what i heard, there's a major problem with the island's generator causing all three of them unable to run. Auxiliary generators included. The cause: some say due to someone cutting corners, someone took a cut on the fuels, they were second-hand generators, the generators somehow blew their compressors. Damn, i heard a lot of rumors. as of right now, i am depending on the electricity provided by the school's independent power generators, which are available at a particular period of time. So, we are seizing those opportune times to charge the devices we city-dwellers so depend on.

What's worse: Me and my housemate were so busy we TOTALLY forgot about our fridge. We were eating by the jetty (beautiful view. for REAL. there are colourful fishies swimming below as we have our meals. Will post something on that.) every evening. When we got back we were so tired and it was really dark. We noticed it last sunday afternoon, when we returned from our sleepover at the office. to our despair, we left the meat we got from a "korban" for a week in the fridge. Allah is Merciful as He is Gracious! I've handled rotten chicken meat but this defecation hits the oscillation. the meat was practically rotten its falling off as i carried it. Like its melting. I am a trained professional when it comes to handling rotting wastes - at home the duty was trash, handling dead animals, cleaning where the animal died, burying dead animals, disposing of maggot, fungus ridden things, to name some - but this hits my gag reflex. I gagged. I even tried my usual technique - inhale deeply and accept the odour into my system - which failed. threw it away, the dogs took it away, problem solved.

but cleaning the fridge is another challenge. We had to clear everything as there were maggots in every shelf and every compartment. It was literally an infestation. and infestation you can't do away with a flamethrower. So, we got our hands dirty started cleaning. We were so methodical and structured in our cleaning efforts. i had maggot bits in my finger nails and some even landed near my mouth. but the day was won and now we only had find a way to get rid of the lingering odour.

night time is another challenge. usually we would hang out at the school trying to get some paperwork done. when we were tired or it is raining or the night is just too dark and scary to navigate, we would just sit in the dark being bored. occasionally filled it with gossip, jokes and whatnot. for dinner we had, if we did not feel like hitting the jetty, we would resort to dry foods. Instant noodles, canned food, crackers and junk food. The usual stuff, just like back in varsity. heh, memories. couldn't have the good stuff cuz the fridge is useless without electric juice.

today, my housemate had to leave the island for a meeting. tonight, i realized something worse than eating by yourself (well, i'm quite used to eating by myself. but just trying to get the point across). It is eating instant noodles by yourself in the dark, at a distance from civilization. Somehow, the dark acutely increases your perception. I can hear all sorts of noises. the sound of geckos tangling with each other. dogs howling from the edge of the village (seriously, dogs here can really do the horror movie howls, fo' shizz!). Water dripping from the tap. the wind. something walking on the roof (oh snap! for real). and most of time, absolute silence. your mind can't help but hoping and wanting to hear, or to see, something. anything. it makes the untrained mind desperate for stimulus. Despite of it being so, I have my DSi to keep me company (if i get to charge the thing).

I have to admit: being a guy who used to live with all the modern amenities, the absence of electricity can leave you dazed, baffled and confused. We are just so used to live with electricity and all gadgets that depend on it. the engineers that came into the island didn't really solve the problem. as long as they were in here, electricity was okay. as soon as they leave, power's gone. Don't you smell something suspicious?  So far, I'm adjusting. the darkness and silence leaves with so much time for introspection: about my personal life so far. about other people. about my actions. about love and relationships. about my personal economy. and stuff like that. Apart from that, i don't see the power supply returning to normal anytime this month.


on another note, in a recent broadband spike (due to declining numbers of users online), i got to test out the multiplayer side of Battlefield 3. IT. IS. AWESOME. its far from the usual run and gun affair of other shooters. teamwork is key. you can really contribute to your team's victory even if you are not fastest gunner of them all. even if you have bad reflexes and aiming skills, you can still provide covering fire from a fixed position - suppressing the enemy while your mates get into position and you don't have to hit the enemy! now thats authentic combat tactics. getting kills doesn't matter. you and your mates will work to achieve the objectives. in fact, chasing after kills can be the reason that brings your team to defeat.

ok i will cover on that in a later post. probably will do a Battlefield 3 VS Call of Duty MW3 discussion. So, yeah. I hope you are all having the time of your lives. Here's to presevering in the name of moral obligation. Night.