What Happens When the Power Goes Out in Phnom Penh?

Hello everyone! This week’s blog is going to be under the heading: what happens when the power goes out in Phnom Penh? This update would be a very short one, if the answer to that question was “life stops and we all cry—we would curl up in a ball, if it didn’t make you super hot.” However, in Cambodia, much like the rain, power outage is a much more common occurrence, and although it is not an everyday burden for the power to go out (like the rain), it is much more common place here than in the states; therefore, life goes on. Here is how life went on the past two days—in categories of course, but this time by day.

Day One

I can remember it like it was two days ago… :D we had started our day like normal, and school went on like normal (I love that even teaching in another country eventually becomes a normality—how we love our routines). It was about three-fifteen in the afternoon, and we were about to have the little kids over to play on Starfall (an education website for young children), when suddenly, fans are off, computers black screened, lights out. We have a lot of brown outs in Cambodia, so it wasn’t something we worried about, we simply told the kids to wait at the house until the lights came back on, then to come over… but then they didn’t come back on. My Bible study (now meeting at four) did our study outside on the carousel in the courtyard, because our normal room was hot and dark. Six o’clock came around, and we were getting ready for internet café, just in case the power decided to come on, but nothing. At some point, the power came back on, and we rejoiced! And then two minutes later went back off… We played Pinochle with Mark and Rhonda--as is our almost nightly tradition to do: I apologize if you are offended by card playing, but I don’t recall ever reading about them in the Bible, so we play :) We did not get very far into the second hand, before we could no longer see. I have to say the thing that is worst about power outages is not the lack of lights, but the lack of air movement! At night the mosquitoes are really bad and carry horrible deadly diseases, so we have to close all the doors and windows… absolutely no God made breeze—hot hot hot and stuffy. We made the most out of it: lots of hand held fans and flashlights. We had a great time of worship in the evening from seven to nine, and it was fantastic. Tha and Yea (our elderly guards) said that the neighbors sat out on the street listening and asked them what was going on upstairs. The only bad part about the worship night was that I leaned my guitar up against a chair and it fell—hard. NOTE TO ALL GUITAR PLAYERS: My tuning key for my D string snapped off. There are guitar shops here in Cambodia, but I had a hard time finding one in the states the last time my B string tuning key broke off. I have asked Rhonda about Ebay and she said that shipping from those sites to here is very difficult, but I could look into it. Thankfully, I monstered a guitar together for Mekarah—one of the BYKOTA girls who is wanting to learn how to play—out of the three Mark and Rhonda had in storage. When I mention playing a guitar later, it is this one. As we lay in bed thinking about how long the night was going to be, I had these thoughts that proved to be ridiculous: “Since I can’t sleep, I think I will play my guitar for a while… oh, broken.” “Since I can’t sleep, I will just read my Bible/book for a while… oh wait, there is no light, and my Ipod is dead.” “Since I can’t sleep, I think I will just pray.” This last one ended up not being ridiculous, because I prayed that God would bring the electricity back, and then BANG the lights all came on. I tried very hard to continue praying after this, because I didn’t want to fall into the trap that so many (including myself) fall into of praying for something and once it has happened forgetting to thank God for it or simply forgetting that a relationship with God is more than just asking Him for things.

Day Two

The next morning started out normal. Kels and I got out of bed and started getting ready for school. The electricity went out while I was in the shower at eight o’clock. We finished getting ready and went down stairs. The part of yesterday that made no electricity aggravating: we had school, we had a group coming in from Singapore to help with school, we had small group that evening, and finally the group was cooking food for the evening and our water purifier uses electricity. School went well, the group that came in had four ladies from different countries, and they all shared about their country for our geography lesson—awesome! With no lights and no fans to make the air move, however, we had to let the kids leave early—the conditions were just too sleepy, and most of their heads were hitting the desk in front of them. One of the ladies from the group had some experience in eye conditions, and we have a three year old girl Roat with an eye problem—she was in our last post. For this reason, Kels, Rhonda, and Vallory headed to the eye doctor. The first doctor simply took some blood (I say simply, but all that were involved would tell you that it was not). Roat said the first words that Kelsi has ever heard her say, “Ott Chjeng! Kinome ott chjeng!” Which translated is “No want! I no want!” A better translation would be, “I don’t want this! Why are you doing this!?” We were afraid that she couldn’t speak at all, so this was a praise God moment… After getting home, Rhonda called an eye specialist and asked for an appointment—which was for the same day. Roat has been found to be blind in her right eye, and the specialist says that she will always be blind in that eye. “The doctors saved her eye, but it won’t ever be used to see,” he said. Now, he may be right, but I also see this as an opportunity to see what God wants. God may want Roat to be blind in that eye, so that He can use it to bring glory to His name—like He did with the boy who was born blind (John 9). She may bare that burden her whole life so that she can be a comfort to others. However, Jesus brought glory to God’s name by healing the boy, also. That is what I am praying will happen. God has the power to heal Roat’s eye—we all agree to that. If it is God’s will, then it will happen, and I pray for God’s will and for the healing of Roat’s eye. As the day progressed, the electricity was still off—cooking still happened in the kitchen with a little burnt rice from not having the rice cooker. As the group from Singapore set everything out to serve dinner to everyone before small group, the lights came back on! The rest of the night was fantastic, as three of the group members shared their testimony and performed a “skit” for the kids. We worshiped at the end, and it was wonderful—God used the monstered guitar and His people from all different nations to bring glory to His name. After the team left we all retreated to our bedrooms to sit and relax for a while… and that is when we found out what a puppy does for hours, when he is locked in a room with no light… Muggy completely trashed the room. I walked in and found that he did not go to the bathroom where he was supposed to, he had gotten our clothes out and chewed on them, he pulled the trash out of the trash can, and he had chewed up one of our towels… I just stopped and said, “Muggy!? Where are you?” I looked all around the room, and then found him sleeping in our clothing hamper—which was “hidden” behind a table supposedly to keep away from him. I wish I had taken a picture of his face! It was pure ignorant innocence. He just looked up at me like he wanted to say, “Oh, you’re back. I thought you were gone forever. That’s why I took ownership of the room.” We will never forget about him again. We understand that he should have never been left alone for that long of a period, but we did have a lot on our plate ;) I guess that is all for now. We will be coming out with another update shortly. Thank you guys for all your support, and we will keep you posted on everything that is happening here in Cambodia!