Blessings in disguise

We have been spending a lot of time in the evening with no power. While it could be VERY easy to find it frustrating we are all learning just how awesome it can be. We have been learning a new meaning to the verse of John 8:12.

I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

We usually spend the evenings on our laptops (like i am doing right now) on facebook. The crazy thing is that we have come across the world to Africa, but find that it is incredibly easy to "go home" with the click of a button. This is certainly a good thing on days when you miss your family. However it is also a really easy way to keep yourself from fully engaging in being here. Sadly it took the power going out for us to realize how much fun we can have together... We usually spend the power outages playing "Mafia."

Mafia is a great game! There are 5 roles you can have, storyteller, mafia, doctor, police officer, and villager. The storyteller is the only participant allowed to talk. They also are the only one who knows which player is which part. They tell everyone to “go to sleep” (close their eyes). They wake each character up one at a time starting with the mafia. If you are the mafia, your job is to 'kill' off the villagers without being discovered. If you are the doctor, your job is to save the person the mafia ‘kills’ by guessing who you want to save. The police officer has to try and guess who the mafia is, then if they are correct, convince all the other villagers to vote that person out of the village. If you are a villager, your job is to figure out who is the mafia, all while trying to stay alive. If you talk too much you quickly become a suspect.. however if you don’t talk enough you’re a suspect too! The game ends when either the Mafia is discovered and voted out.. OR all of the villagers are out. This game is hilarious.. and you find out quickly that your friends.. are NOT … your friends! It gets serious .. ha

We have found that some of the best time we have had at the house happen when there is no power. We have been learning that we can enjoy each other more and have awesome discussions when the power is out. That we do not NEED our laptops and internet because hanging out together is a great time as well. We realized more clearly when the power came back, and we all went back to our own lives on our computers, that possibly we weren’t taking it seriously enough being here with awesome people, and getting to know them. We are learning that the light of life, really has absolutely nothing to do with luxuries you may think you need … like power. It has been awesome!