Thing Number 5 that Used to be Normal and Now is Not

As a my brilliantly gifted friend Anne recently stated on her blog “the return to blogging is so embarrassing.” Enough said. On to number 5...

Not having lights** at some point during the day.

This past year I have been appointed to be on the City of Holland’s Sustainability Committee. We talk about many things, including a lot of talk about how to develop an energy plan for the city. At one point someone (jokingly) made a comment about mandatory black outs during the day. Not picking up on their sarcasm at first, I was nodding my head in agreement and thought, “naturally, a great idea.” I even had it worked out in my head how we could have efficient black outs because we would be systematic about it (for instance, you know that every other day from 3pm to 5pm you aren’t going to have electricity). I was about to vocally contribute to the meeting with a, “seriously people, we can do this!” But by then the committee had moved on to the next thing and my mind had stopped daydreaming about how convenient mandatory black outs would be.

The most maddening things about the lights leaving in the DR is this…they have a knack of doing so just when you really need them—like when you needed to print something off for a meeting you have in 10 minutes, or just as you are about to show a video clip to illustrate in important point in a Young Life Club talk. Or when you have invited a bunch of people over for a movie, or right at a crucial point in a movie (sidenote: the lights leaving is the reason I have only seen one and a half of both The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings movies) or when you realize a movie is due and it is still in the DVD player (true story: my good friends took their DVD player to the movie rental place to return a movie to avoid late fees). The worst, however, is in the middle of the night when hum of the fan is cut suddenly and before the blades have even come to a full stop their hum is replaced with the hum of the thirsty mosquitoes whose quest to feed had been thwarted by the breeze of the fan.

You honestly get used to it. And though it doesn’t get less annoying, in an odd way it created a common bond and means for celebration—when the lights would come back there would be cheers, claps and cries of “llego la luz!” (the lights have arrived) throughout the neighborhood. And in some way you felt like you won something and a reason to celebrate.

All this to say: in terms of sustainability, I think the Dominicans are on to something. And we could work it out—if you knew you wouldn’t have lights from 3-5pm you simply could avoid watching movies during that time.

**Thing #5.5 that Used to be Normal and Now is Not—referring to electricity as “lights” as in the ever popular and oft stated phrase: se fue la luz (the lights left).