Tuesday, October 30, 2012

It's Just Us...and a Pan Full of Candles...

Well...it looks like internet and power will hold at least long enough for me to finish this post!  Even though Sandy was much less dramatic for us here in the Bahamas than it has been for the Eastern Seaboard, we were still without power for nearly 48 hours straight and without running water for even longer.  Things are somewhat back to normal, though Jonathan and I are still dealing with periodic power/cable/internet outages here at our humble abode.  So annoying!  We spent the weekend riding out the storm at the Wellses casa (Sunset Lodge), so when we got back to our apartment we were thrilled to find only evidence that there had been some minor standing water inside.  We live about a block from the canal which apparently was having 8-10' swells in it during the storm!  So we put all our stuff away, had some dinner, and got ready for bed.  Jonathan went into the bathroom to "tinkle" (if you will), and I got in my jammies and into bed.  About that time, the power cut off.  And it was PITCH black in the house.  Couldn't see your hand in front of your face!  So poor Jonathan had to "shoot in the dark" and then feel his way out of the bathroom...

"Living" at Sunset Lodge for the weekend (which, for those of you who don't know, sort of functions like the dorms for the school...they only rent to students and it's within walking distance of campus) took me back to my college days.  Maybe not in a good way.  I remember visiting Walker 7 at OU and it being packed with gross boys, squeally girls (guilty), and way too many stupid ideas.  That's about what Sunset looked like on Friday and Saturday.  I have to give people the benefit of the doubt, though.  Imagine 100 or so MED students who are at the end of their mental rope, put them in one confined space, turn off the power/internet/cable/water for two days, and take away their transportation.  Yeah.  Can you see the picture I'm painting for you??

Picture #1-4 boys (not Matt or Jonathan or Vedant) decide they're bored.  So they go down stairs (mind you, wind gusts are around 40-60 mph at this point) and get a shopping cart.  They push that shopping cart into the courtyard (so everyone in the complex can see their...ummm...folly...).  They bring out a broom and bed sheet and decide they are going to fashion them into a sail and attach that sail to the shopping cart and see if they can "catch a breeze".  They break the broom in half, the bed sheet is completely soaked through, and the poor kid "riding" in the cart isn't going anywhere.  So they choose a skinnier kid and he actually does go somewhere...sort of.  They are so proud of themselves.  At this point the cart is dangerously close to the edge of the pool...and it's at a stand still.  Going nowhere.  Until one of them pushes the whole thing, kid and all, into the pool.  And then all of them (including the 5-7 boys that joined the "party") all get in the pool.  In a hurricane...

Picture #2-Friday night we decide that peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches are just not gonna cut it for lunch AND dinner.  So the boys figure out how to get the gas grill downstairs working and we pile together anything "grillable" that doesn't require opening the freezer (since the power is out) and make a "feast".  Comprised of hot dogs, a few chicken breasts, and boca burger patties.  Split between 6 people.  With a pan full of candles in the middle of the table for light.  Romantic??  Maybe not.  Inventive??  Definitely.  So the next day we grabbed a ride with JC and went to buy a lantern.  Because candles and flashlights just don't cut it after a while.

Picture #3-Saturday early evening.  Water has been out for a while.  And people just have to flush...I mean seriously.  So what does an apartment complex full of resourceful future doctors do??  Avail themselves of the perfectly good pool outside.  So one by one, people starting coming out to the pool to grab buckets of flushin' water.  Problem solved!

So what are the takeaways here??  DO NOT go to Dominica without a lantern, flashlights, batteries, and ingenuity.  You just won't survive a hurricane on a teeny little tropical island otherwise...

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