As the hotel was actually meant to open the upcoming Monday, Didier had to return to work to see what was going on over there and determine if and when he would be able to start cooking and teaching the new menu to his rag tag staff. Turned out there was still no power at the hotel, as at our home, and he would be going in to help with the removal of debris and fallen trees from the property and to see if there was anything salvageable in the refrigerator. Like many hotels on the island, as we discovered, his hotel had a generator that had not been well maintained and was not providing power to the hotel. That included the rooms, offices, refrigerators, freezers. Pretty much anything that required electricity was now not working. Strangely, even were the generator working, the freezers and refrigerators were not considered essential and were not connected. Go figure. (Now it could be that because I am the wife of a chef, I consider the food stuffs of value, but perhaps rising food cost and waste is not as important as I imagine it to be.)
While the hubby toiled away at work, I prepared to cook as much of the food I thought possible to prevent it from going to waste. I cooked 12 sausage patties, a pound of bacon, twenty-four chicken tenders and did all the dishes too. It seemed I was doing dishes all day long for fear that our water would go too. There were rumors about the water supply and many friends had already lost theirs. We listened to my iPod on a portable iPod base left by some of our visiting friends and did puzzles, drew, colored, danced, and exhausted ourselves so that I could coax both girls to nap.
The nap wasn't quite long enough as we were all just too hot, but it was a welcomed reprieve. After the nap and a snack, we went for a walk to see how other properties had fared and saw felled trees, downed power lines, signs torn from their hinges, sidewalks overturned due to uprooted trees. The hotel is just a short walk from home, so we found ourselves there. With a crew of executive and rank and file staff, we found Didier hustling to get the generator installed. He was sweating and looked stressed but determined. To show our support for him, we kissed and hugged him and then went back towards home. It would soon be dark and I surely didn't want the girls out there on the street with me.
We picked limes from our fallen tree once we were home, and went inside to prep the house for the darkness. It was fast approaching 5 PM and though we had an hour before blackness, inside the house was already a dark grey. The water pressure was fading and I feared we wouldn't have the chance to shower. Then it dawned on me that once when our solar panels had failed in the main house, we'd still had water in the guesthouse. The two units were on different water tanks! I ran the girls over to the guesthouse where, in still, nearing darkness, we took a warm shower together, lotioned up, and walked back home just as the sun was sinking into the sea. Didier pulled up at that moment and I sent him over there for a welcomed surprise shower.
We ate red meat for dinner and the girls had pasta or noodles or some other carb to fill their bellies and I transfixed them with a video before we passed out at 7:30. There would be no school tomorrow as much of the island was still without power, so I counted my blessings and thanked God for small mercies. We were all together in the living room again, sweating it out. Again, very little sleep and every sound roused me. The instinct to protect my cubs is quite strong and I envisioned looters, animals, and another storm at every sound. I prayed for a break. I missed a chat on the phone with someone, anyone to commiserate.
(c) Copyright 2010. City Mom in the Jungle.
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