No electricity

Day by day it happens, that there is for a certain time no electricity. Here in Mangatarem, Pangasinan, I experience it every day. Sometimes more than only once a day – sometimes for some hours. So I have also to do some work just by sitting around and speaking with people around. But when I like to write some letters in the evening or to cook at noontime and there is no electricity (walang corriente) it’s really annoying. But this is life in a rural area.

I have to be honest. The really poor people in the fields not far from here have no electricity. So they cook by charcoal or wood. Sometimes a family has six to eight children. I asked myself how can they learn, when they cannot study at nighttime. The sunrise starts at 6 am and the sunset is likely at 6.30 pm. So the families construct a petrol candle made of an old bottle with a wick through the cover. But the light is truly to less to give light for studying. So people there have to find other work at nighttime. Maybe they sit together just to speak and to tell stories. Of course there are also other ways to pass the time. When I’m more adapted to the life here I’ll visit places for more than only one day.

I hope I can find my way also by candlelight :-)