Inward Renewal

In our neighborhood, any time we get rain we almost certainly will have a blackout.  It’s just an expected reality of living here, so the quicker one learns to accept it the more tranquil life becomes.  I can say that our family has long ago accepted the frequent power outages, but we still have to have a backup game plan for cooking, baths for the kids etc…  For the better part of a week we haven’t received the predictable afternoon rains, but late this afternoon that all changed.  What started as sprinkles turned into a downpour.  Stan (my father-in-law) and I prepared the grill under a tree and suspended card board above the hot coals until they were glowing hot.  The chicken wings went on and sizzled in the early evening rain to perfection.  By the time Donna (my mother-in-law) and Andrea cooked green beans and mashed potatoes over the petrol camping stove, the house was dark.  But that was okay because we have a huge supply of candles that are ready to go for evenings like this.  The dinner was nice and the food was hot.  Candle light dinners are so commonplace for Andrea and I that we’re not that interested in a candle-lit romantic dinner like we used to be. They’re just another component of evening in Africa.