This morning I awoke feeling hot. My fruitless fiddling with the a/c remote revealed that the power was out. The water was out, too. I expected the power to come back in a few minutes, as it has done in the past, but it ended up not coming back until the mid-afternoon. But life goes on, especially in Vietnam. No one needs lights during the day; the sun streaming in through the windows is light enough. Everyone cooks with gas, so that's not impeded by the sudden absence of electricity, either. The only real reasons electricity is important is to run the a/c, tv, and to power or charge electronics. And not that many people have any of those, anyway. Walking around outside, the only indicator of the lack of power was the fact that none of the shops had their electric fans on. I wonder whether daily life is so independent of electricity because it is so unreliable, or whether it can continue to be unreliable because there is minimal pressure to improve the infrastructure.
Not much else of note happened. I was missing home and missing home people more than usual today.
The autumn leaves are falling like rain
Although my
neighbors are all barbarians
And you, you are a thousand miles away
There are always two cups at my table.
– T’ang dynasty poem
Didn't the lack of electricity, and the fact that life went on, also bring a sense of liberty and liberation?
ReplyDeleteWe miss you A LOT, and your ears must have been on fire cause we have spent a good part of the weekend praising you and talking about you with at least three, if not four, sets of friends.
I always will have a cup [or glass of beer] at my table, waiting for you to walk through the door.
Con amor, papi