Losing my edge

Friday, Nov 13

I’m losing my edge. After 8 months on the island I’m softening up. Things that would have bothered me, I now accept. Sometimes I even chuckle. Today was one of those days.

I entered the office and noticed that no lights were on. The electricity was off. It doesn’t happen frequently but then again it’s not uncommon. The staff see it as a reason to stop working even though they all have battery-equipped laptops and there is plenty of light in the office. Usually I’d suggest they do some work or study for the auditing exam they are suppose to take this spring. Today I was tired and complacent so, instead, I went in my office and lay down on the couch.

A couple of hours later the power still wasn’t on and I started to get restless. A call to the utility company provided us with typically vague and non-definitive information. The electricity wouldn’t be on by lunch but they didn’t know when – or if – it would be running in the afternoon.

These things always happen when my boss is out of town and I’m the acting public auditor. What to do? Since the electricity also runs the water system I had to take public health and hygiene issues into consideration. I sent everyone home with the agreement that the secretary would call the power company from home at the end of lunchtime and then call everyone in the office to let them know whether they should come back to work or spend the afternoon ‘working from home.’ To be certain that nobody would not show up in the afternoon (if the electricity was on) and use the excuse that the secretary didn’t call, I made sure they all had the secretary’s number and understood that they were responsible to call her if she didn’t call them.

We all left. Since Wenonoa and I leave together in the morning and she gets home before me, I don’t bother carrying house keys. No problem I thought, my landlord’s wife is always home and they would certainly have a key to our house as all landlords do. Dropped off in front of my house by a co-worker, I walked next door to the landlord’s.

Imagine my surprise when I found out the wife didn’t know where the landlord keeps the key to the house. No problem, it was 11:30 and I assumed he’d be home around noontime for lunch. I went up to our nahs (covered patio) and took out some work I had brought home. The rumble of the landlord’s diesel trunk coming down the driveway didn’t interrupt me at 12:00. It didn’t interrupt me at 12:15 or 12:30 either. I guess he doesn’t come home for lunch every day like I thought.

Being a warm day, as all days in Micronesia are, I had taken off my shirt and rolled my pants up to my knees. Assuming the heat wasn’t good for the fish or beans in my lunch, I decided I might as well eat. Of course, the fork I had intended to use was in my office. The privacy of the nahs provided the opportunity to consider whether utensils are truly necessary or whether fingers bent into the shape of a scoop would work fine. They do.
So there I sat sitting on a table shirtless, pants rolled up, scooping beans out of a tupperware container with my fingers when I glanced up and saw about 30 feet away one of the kittens eating a baby rat. I noticed that the other kitten was eating a gecko. The three of us ate our respective lunches.

I had no faith that the utility company would have the electricity running. They hadn’t identified the problem as of 11:00 when we called and I assumed they would break for lunch. As a result, I wasn’t too concerned that our lunch time ended at 1:30 and I was stranded, locked out of my house, about 4 miles from the office. Still, I thought I should consider my options.

Feeling sluggish from the combined effect of the heat, humidity, and lunch, it seemed logical that I should lie down to consider my options. Fortunately, the work I had brought home was about the right size and almost soft enough to serve as a pillow. It would do. After clearing the table of the majority of tiny ants that seem to call the table home I lay down to do some thinking. About an hour later I woke up.

Since it was now almost 2:00 and Wenonoa gets home from work around 2:30 my problem was solved. I’d wait and then call the secretary to verify that the electricity never came back on. 2:30 passed. 2:45 passed. By 3:00 I concluded she must have decided to stay late and grade papers or use the internet.

Around 3:15 the wind picked up and the temperature cooled down. Some relief from the heat and humidity had arrived! And it brought rain. The rain has a wonderfully cooling effect. However, when the wind blows strong, the rain blows off course. Instead of falling in a straight line down and around the nahs, it gets blown in. It is at times like this that I’ve learned the only reasonable response is just to laugh.

Soon after the rain shower passed over, I heard the car come down the gravel driveway and Wenonoa pulled up. She was a bit surprised when she opened the back door to let the air flow through the house and I was standing there.

“Your home,” she commented with surprise, “no wonder when I called your office the secretary said she hadn’t been able to get in touch with you all afternoon.”