The Night the Lights Went Out on Jamrock

One week ago this evening (April 17, 2016) I was eating dinner in my villa with a few Jamaican friends when the lights inside slowly dimmed and then went completely out.  This is nothing really out of the ordinary in Jamaica.  There are often brief power outages in random areas and pretty much everyone is prepared for them with flashlights or candles on hand at all times.  One of us turned on a flashlight so I could find a lighter and set up the candles on the dining room table.  No big deal, it created some nice atmosphere while finishing our dinners.

But what was very unusual about this particular power cut is that over the course of about an hour we had found out via social media that it was an island-wide complete blackout.  The entire island lost power which was very eerie to think about.  Even the radio stations were dead.

I went up to a rooftop lookout room in the villa to take a look outside.  Normally the views from up there were the street below and the hills in the distance dotted with lights from roads and other communities.  Right at that moment all I saw was blackness.  No streetlights anywhere, no community lights…..nothing.  Have you ever driven on a country road in the middle of nowhere and just shut off your headlights?  Yup….that’s how dark it was.  Pitch black.

So the five of us sat in the living room listening to music on my Sony Bluetooth box
(thank goodness it had a full battery charge), not knowing how long we’d be in complete darkness.  The first thing I could think about is that I bet crime rises significantly if the whole island is out of power.  The second thing I wondered is where in our general vicinity might have a generator so we didn’t have to sit bored in the dark.

Hours passed and we really had nothing to do but listen to music and hope our cell phones didn’t die.  Otherwise we’d be taking turns plugging into the car charger.

We couldn’t even wash the dishes by candle light because coincidentally our water was cut that evening too LOL.  Figures.

Boredom got the best of us and we all decided to pile into the car and just drive until we found somewhere in the area that might have a generator.  Luckily we didn’t have to go very far.  About five minutes up the road we came upon one of my favorite guest houses, Paradise Ocean View and we could see from the road that they had light!  Not only lights, but loud music, a fire burning, water and flushing toilets, and a ton of people sitting around the bar.  Busier than I’ve ever seen the place LOL.  I guess a blackout is good business for them.

About an hour into our sitting at the bar sipping some rum we saw the street light out front magically come back on and everyone simultaneously acknowledged it with a little cheer.  Overall, the island-wide blackout lasted probably three hours.  Long enough to kill our intended night out for karaoke at Cloggy’s.

Now, a week later, here I sit alone in my own home in Canada and I’d give anything to be back in the darkness with friends on the night the lights went out on Jamrock.