Wander Susan Wonder

My days in Chad feel like another lifetime for the most part. It has been over 10 years since I lived there…WHAT IS HAPPENING?? I developed many skills living in a small African town. I could drive a stick shift, change the oil in a generator, cook from scratch, ride on the back of a motorcycle in a long skirt, change a gas tank on the stove, light a gas stove without killing myself (more of an accomplishment than you might think), and chase donkeys off the airstrip (see post) among other things.

In the years of living in more developed places, I’ve lost some of my Chadian skills as well as some overall African toughness. There have been multiple times where I think, “Chad Susan would punch current Susan in the face.” One of those moments came the other day:

I was sitting in my apartment and the power went out. It was still light outside, but I immediately started thinking, “what am I gonna do?!?!” I peeked my head outside to realize the whole complex didn’t have power, I went back in my apartment….and started pacing. I looked up the power company online and it said an accident had caused the outage. It also said that they would probably have it fixed within 1-8 hours. Wait, this could take up to 8 hours??

I’d like to remind you that it was still light outside…darkness was hours away. Did that stop me from texting a friend to ask if I could stay at her house if the power didn’t come back on….it sure didn’t. I sat on my couch staring at my phone, which had full power, thinking, “what am I gonna do?”

At the most, the power was out 45min. As soon as the lights came back on, I could see Chad Susan in my head, rolling her eyes and shaking her head at the wimpy kid who was pacing her apartment because the power went out. Here’s to remembering Chad Susan, and maybe not freaking out the next time the power goes out.