Tidur Luar - Sleep Out

So what does one, or two, in this case do when living in 30C climate when the power goes out! Get creative.

First a little background info. Our house has windows that open, a screen door to the balcony and very high ceilings. But, when we asked the owner to put screens on the openings that are traditionally put at the top of the walls just under the ceilings in Indonesian homes, she decided on her own that would not be attractive so put in glass and had it cemented in! So, when the day is 30C plus, it cools a little at night to about 27C but not our house. It holds the heat which has nowhere to go even if we can get an errant breeze to pass through. This isn’t often as the evening goes on as the breezes go down in the night.

 

So, back to our story. My new housemate and VSO/CUSO volunteer and I started the adventure when our power went off at 11pm one night. That means our fans go off in our bedrooms too. So by 1 am I was sitting out on the balcony where it was only slightly cooler, but the mosquitoes finally drove me in. They don’t swarm as they do at home but there’s enough to make it uncomfortable and since I seem to have developed allergic reactions to some of the bites, I chose not to look like the alien from the red planet the next day as the bites swelled to red blotches on me, and went in side to splay on my bed and breathe deeply and slowly and hope not to perish before morn. I heard Nelly wander out at 3 am in search the same as I had but soon to return to her room.

Next day, still no power, the whole city went out for the night but most back on in the morning except our neighbourhood. A power station had a fire and not back in form yet. So, now our fridge is defrosting! And my one package of stewing beef being saved for a special occasion. It got cooked up on our gas that night! So as the second night approached these two women first had short panic about living through another night, searched out our candles and my headlamp and got creative.

Headlamp helps

We have 3 wooden benches on our balcony, put two together for my long body and one with a chair at the end for Nelly’s petite one. I put my yoga mate on mine for a mattress but that didn’t last long as my bones needed the cushions off of our couch as did Nelly. We got a mosquito coil going between the benches and the grande finale was her mosquito net, yet unused, would at the last minute be pulled over us from the back of the benches making a tent just as we did as children making tents on the living room furniture!

Worked like a darn and I had a great sleep! Exhaustion from the last night probably helped but it was pretty comfy. Nelly woke me from a deep sleep at 1:30 am to say lights were on so of course the power was back. I became Linus, dragged my pillow and sheet – not required as far too hot – and dragged them back to my bedroom and fell into bed.

Now we are back to the usual short outages just because, but they are bearable.

Never underestimate the value of a campout!!!!!