Postscript

Damage after the storm: We just had sticks in our backyard, but a branch of our tree fell in our neighbor’s yard. (Click on the images in this post to view them larger)

We had an unusual Christmas this year.  It wasn’t just because we were in Africa, but because we had a large storm on the evening of December 23 and were without power for several days.   The storm lasted 30 minutes.  For about five minutes the wind blew rain horizontally.  The rain came down at such a pace that the road behind our house flowed like a river. The lights in the house flickered and then went out.  We saw sparks and heard a loud bang. The transformer behind our house had blown.

When it was over, branches and fallen trees cluttered and blocked some roads in our neighborhood. Power and phone lines were laying in the road.  Some of our co-workers who live in the Cassia Court compound were not able to leave because a tree had fallen on their drive way.

We drove around town on Christmas Eve — more downed trees and power lines.  Billboards had blown down; in some cases the whole frames had collapsed.  The news reported a roof had blown off a building downtown and fallen trees in the central business district had smashed cars.  At least two had died from storm related events.  From December 24 until about December 27 we heard chain saws as debris was being cleared.

No power the evening of the 23, all day the 24 and 25 and part of the 26 meant no Christmas baking.  The refrigerator stayed closed most of the time.  We saved what food we could.  Not everywhere was without power, so we ate many of our meals during those days at local restaurants. Our office has a generator, so we brought our cell phones and computers there for charging.

We spent Christmas Eve with some colleagues from our office enjoying fellowship, snacks and desserts by candlelight.  They also had a battery-powered MP3 player so that we could listen to Christmas music.  In this case having no power created a nice ambiance.

Christmas morning we were at home.  Our tree remained unlit, but for a brief time we had a small current of power that was enough for us to watch part of a Christmas movie.  It was not enough power to run our refrigerator or stove. When the gifts were all opened, we went to a local mall to see a movie (Avatar) and eat Christmas dinner.  By the time we got back we had enough battery power on our computers to make some calls home using our mobile internet connection and skype.

The power came back on the 26, and went on and off at long increments for a couple of days.  We cleaned out the refrigerator and replaced the food that didn’t make it.  It was certainly a Christmas unlike any we’ve had before.

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