Plunged Into Darkness

My current stay in the island of Mindanao, Philippines is proving to be quite a challenge because of regularly scheduled (!) power outages or brownouts (as Filipinos refer to them). For instance, in the town where my uncle was laid to rest, brownouts are scheduled every other night for three very long, hot, dark hours every time.

On one particular night which had a scheduled brownout, I brought a pre-lit kerosene lamp with me into the bathroom when I went in to take a shower. My foresight saved me from screaming my head off when I was suddenly plunged into pitch-black darkness when the electricity was cut off.

I was told that El Niño is to blame for the brownouts: the dry weather and lessened rainfall have lowered the water level in Lake Lanao. Given that 70% of the electricity used by the people of Mindanao is generated by the hydroelectric plant in Lake Lanao, lower water levels in the lake means less output of electricity for the people of Mindanao to get by on. I hope and pray that the rains come very soon so that the power situation in Mindanao can return to normal.

On a more wistful note, the kerosene lamp brought me back to a certain time in my childhood when we lived in a small town where we did not have the luxury of electricity. We relied on kerosene lamps with metal bases, cotton wicks and rounded glass covers (and the occasional candle) to provide us light at night.

Maybe we did have electricity. Maybe what I recall are the nights when we had brownouts. In any case, I still remember the black smoke that emanated from the hole the top of the glass that covered the small fire, the soot that accumulated on the curve of the glass, the unmistakably strong odour of kerosene, and the small knob that I could turn to control the intensity of the fire — or turn off the fire altogether — by lowering or raising the wick.

Thanks to that kerosene lamp, for that one very hot, dark but special night, I was a little girl once again, treading softly on the creaking wooden floor, gingerly holding on to the fragile lamp.