Off the Map Chile Adventure: The Incredible Stormy Night

It has been storming here for the last week. Amazing. The fiercest wind, the most thundering rain you can imagine. The whole house shakes, the windows rattle, wind howls around the house and slips in through the cracks and makes you feel like it is coming in to get you. I feel like the house is going to lift off the ground and fly away just like in Wizard of Oz. Last night was the biggest of storms. Achilles went out to play basketball. I stayed up waiting for him. We finally got in bed around midnight. We couldn't sleep right away as the storm was so loud. We layed in bed listening to all the crazy sounds and talking about how amazing it was. I got up to use the restroom and realized that the power had gone out. Oh well, we'd deal with it in the morning. I felt my way downstairs and grabbed a flashlight and put it near my bed. Finallly sometime afer 1:00am I drifted off to sleep. Around 4:30 I awoke to a sound louder than the wind. It was Elijah throwing up. I rushed to his room only to find, of course, that I couldn't see a thing. Where had he thrown up? Was it on his bed? his pillow? I fumbled back to my room, found the flashlight and went back to him. Poor little guy. At least there was a pan nearby (unfortunately this wasn't his first time being sick in Chile and we keep a pan near his bed.) I got him throwing up into the pan but when I went to wash out the pan, I realized that as we had no electricity, that also meant that we had no water (our water is run by a pump that is run by electricity). I rinsed out the pot the best I could with the few drips that came out of the tap, and went down to get at least a glass of drinking water for him to wash out his mouth with. At this time I realized that I was probably going to be up for a while and I did not want to be cold. The fire had died out but I thought there may still be a few embers. Time to rekindle the fire. I shined my flashlight into the wood stove, it was still a little warm, but no embers, I would have to start from scratch. I shined my light over to the wood box. Of course... we were out of wood. Then I heard Elijah again. Upstairs I ran. By this time Achilles had woken up. Mind you the storm is still raging outside. "Babe, I said to Achilles through the dark, "We are out of wood, the lights are out and we don't have any water." "Ugg" he grumbled, "This is ridiculous" Nonetheless what could we do? Achilles put on his jeans, rainjacket, and boots and headed out into the darkest of nights with the flashlight. I stayed with Elijah at his bed with the candle. The main breaker to our house is not actually on our property. It is up the hill, through a barbed wire fence and is a perilous journey even in the daylight. Him doing it in the pouring rain, made me super nervous. He was gone for a while. I kept peeking out the door hoping for his return. Suddenly the lights went on... he had done it Yeah! Now just let him come back safely! I was relieved to see a small light heading down the hill back toward the house. He even stopped at the wood shed and brought back some wood. My hero! Elijah continued to be sick, but at least we could see, could wash up, and warm up the house. Achilles and I took turns staying with Elijah. I eventually fell back asleep and then when morning finally came Achilles came back to bed too. The next morning we laughed as he told us about his trip to the breaker box and how he had fought bravely through the rain and wind only to step in cow poop! 3 times! Aaaaaahhhh we love Chile!