Dining in the dark

Lights went out at the staff house as I sat down for dinner a little while ago. There was absolute darkness. The cable bringing power to the house was on fire. The emergency generator did not come on. There was a commotion. All rushed outside. A fire extinguisher hanging outside the house was picked up by someone. A co-worker and I walked inside a neighbor’s shack in the shanty town all around us. It was closer to the location of the fire. There was a crowd. A local young man got up on his roof with a bucket full of sand to douse the fire. Instead I handed him the fire extinguisher with hand gesture showing how to operate. He did exactly that. Powder spewed out and doused the fire. I said to him - “mais” (more). The fire was gone. I never had the occasion to use or see in use a fire extinguisher in my life. There is a first for everything.

I finished my dinner with the little flash light my wife had given. Many more flash lights showed up. We were able to put the transfer switch in manual mode and flip the switch to the generator side. Generator started and the lights came back. Who knows how many days it will take for the commercial power to be restored to the house? TIA (This is Angola).