Sunday 28 October 2012

My experience following Hurricane Sandy

Well when Sandy hit Jamaica, it was only a category 1 hurricane and thank God for that. The amount of damage I heard it has done is incredible and so my heart goes out to those in New York right now who is experiencing a greater magnitude of the hurricane. It is one thing to hear about hurricane but experiencing and seeing what it can do can affect anyone tremendously. Anyway, it came and it ended and it affected electricity for 4 days in my community...no light, no tv, no computer WHATTTTTTT!!!!

You will never know how much you have lean and depend on these things until you are without there use. I mean I almost went crazy. ME! who grow up with a family who knew how to enjoy the moonlight playing ring games and hide n seek...Yes, the days when we light we flambo and listen to all kind of jumbie stories, but today I have been so MODERNIZE that without electricity I felt like a fish out of water. How about you? What was it like?

Well I told myself, I am a country girl and creative. My husband and I pull out our scrabble., ludo and cards and night after night we play competitively. We even remember a game from primary school...Boys, Girls, Animal, Places, Things...You remember that? We play religiously under our candle light throughout the nights and you know what I realized? Sandy give us a chance to BOND. I never realize how much of our time is taken up with TV and computer until I sat there playing those games. 

We come from work each day and the first thing my husband does is turn on the TV  me... I turn on the computer and we will spend the rest of the night doing our own things, occasionally holding short bits of conversation in between. Yet, it is amazing how these things (TV, computers, game boys) can blind us to the big space that slowly builds up between couples, parents and children etc overtime. It is true that I also realized that I  don't want my husband 24/7 holding conversation. I need my ME time, but still in spite of the harm and destruction of Sandy, I see how it can bring families and even friends closer together. In fact, for the first time since my stay in Jamaica I enjoyed the moonlight even though it was not full. In the absence of electricity, I looked outside and saw the place bright so I decided to look further and my husband was like 'it's the moon.' We stood outside for a little and hugged under the magnificent beauty of nature God has created. I know the situation of Sandy is devastating for many, but I urge us to find time within this period to draw closer to each other and just have some fun in spite of your limited resources.

I would love to hear from you so feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts or experiences. 

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