Blackouts.

Well, it's not even winter yet but the blackouts have begun. We've had four or five so far. The first one lasted only a few minutes (last week) but since then, they have gotten longer and longer. Today, the power was out for about three or four hours I think. I entertained myself though, played card games with the other teachers and then went for a walk around the village and took some pictures. The power eventually came back on, but I wasn't in the mood to do any work, so we went back outside and walked to the reservoir. It started raining in the middle of the walk, which probably isn't the best for my sore throat, but it stopped pretty soon after it began. The reservoir is interesting because it's a body of water about the size of an Olympic swimming pool that has a wooden fence around it. That's where the locals get their water - they come get it and bring it back to their houses using the quads or snow machines. There's no filtration system, and there's no telling how clean the water is. It's not enclosed in any way, so ducks can land in it and whatnot. I'm curious if they have a filtration system in their homes. In Haiti, they use a system that just filters the dirty water each time you fill up the bucket. It's worth looking into - because maybe it would be useful here! While on the walk, I picked some Labrador to make tea. It's not very good, but it's better if you mix it with black tea which I will try in a little while. The natives swear by this stuff. For a sore throat, you're supposed to chew them (they look like needles from a Christmas tree) and then swallow the juice you get from chewing it, and spit out the needles. It doesn't taste very good, and I had a few tiny pieces get stuck in the back of my mouth...not very pleasant. I'm going to have to try it again to see if it actually does cure a sore throat. I figure if it's good I can go out with a gallon Ziploc bag and get lots of it. I just got the call for volleyball, so I'm off to the school!