Lights Out on Ramadan

It's the end of Ramadan and here in Baku that means everyone is in the countryside visiting family. The streets are quiet and you get a sense of what traffic must have been like here ten years ago. In a word, wonderful.

On Saturday night our electricity went out around 11:00. We figured it was a short power outage and we opened the windows to get some air. I was awoken at day break to the sound of call to prayer. Although I often hear the call to prayer when I'm working around the house or walking through town, there was something especially beautiful about the sounds coming through the windows in the soft light of the morning.

Unfortunately, when I woke up again later in the morning our electricity was still out. At the beginning of a four-day weekend. I checked the refrigerator and thankfully everything was still cold. After calling the embassy they sent out a technician who, within 45 minutes, had gone up to the roof, messed with a few wires, and voila, the lights were back on.

Just 10 or so hours without electricity (and most of those sleeping) and I was at a complete loss. You just never realize how almost everything you do in your house relies on those currents coming out of the wall. By the time the technician arrived I had decided my best bet was just to read in the dark. I suppose it was also another flash back to what Baku was often like ten years ago!

It has otherwise been a quiet weekend - except for a trip to the medical clinic with a friend who sprained her ankle playing ultimate frisbee. But a blog post on the state of medicine here is the subject of another post. Or perhaps an entire book.