Lights Out

Since my French is really quite basic, I’m often left in the dark at times when things are lost in translation. Last night a little misunderstanding left me - literally - in the dark. At first I paid no attention to the early afternoon power cut since it happens frequently and usually lasts only for short intervals. I kept waiting the electricity to turn on again yesterday afternoon but wasn’t fussed since my apartment-mate was away and I could still cook on the gas stove.

However, as the daylight waned, I grew perplexed as to why the outage was dragging on so long. I poked my head outside on the balcony and was shocked to see lights in the neighboring buildings, since usually the entire neighborhood is in this together. Then I discovered that the hallway of my apartment building lit up when I pressed the button, so I started to wonder where I might find the circuit breaker.

I dug out a few candles from under the sink and laid them on the kitchen table before I walked downstairs and asked the guard if other apartments were without electricity. He shook his head, then said, “Wait,” and disappeared for a minute into another room. A moment later, he opened the door and waved me in while pointing to a meter. He said, “You’re out of credit. Do you have candles?” Sure enough, our meter read zero, while others flashed numbers and whirred on.

I had no idea that there was any kind of credit associated with our electricity. I had (naively) assumed that we’d pay a bill at the end of the month for what we’d used. No, that’s not how it works here. I quickly learned that you buy credit – much like the phone credits – and top off the meter, then hope that you (or someone else) will notice when you’re meter is running low. I asked where I could buy a refill card. Senelec, but they don’t open again until Monday, was the response. Anywhere else I might get a card? Nope. I was thankful for a moment that no one spoke English for what came out of my mouth next.

It then dawned on me while I was walking back up the stairs to my apartment: our housekeeper was trying to convey this to me on Friday morning. The guard must have told her that our credit was running low, and she then explained this to me but I didn’t quite get the whole story. I had interpreted her pointing at the light fixture on the wall above the refrigerator as she couldn’t find light bulbs. At the time, I nodded, and said the equivalent of OK, no problem, clearly not seeing this as anything urgent.

As I lit the candles I started to laugh at myself for totally missing the point; serves me right for not figuring out a way to clarify what I didn’t understand. As they say, don’t assume...