Friday, May 8, 2009

It's all fun and games until Justine gets struck by lightening...

So, Thursday night I was frantically trying to finish writing a grant proposal when it started sprinkling. Heeding the numerous warnings of our safety and security officer, I unplugged my computer from the wall to avoid the electrical surges. Still running on the battery, I was playing music and procrastinating by playing with Maggie, who was sitting on my lap.

Then there was this loud boom like when someone gets sucked into a time machine in a bad Sci-Fi movie and there was this big flash (may have been my life flashing before my eyes) and my chair was thrown backwards into the kitchen unit behind me and Maggie went flying across the room and was screaming and my whole body went numb. Mysteriously, the screen of my computer went black (still is), but "She Drives Me Crazy" by the Fine Young Cannibals was still blaring from the speakers.

And then the next thing I know I was pacing in circles in the middle of my house, screaming and freaking out over the fact that my hut smelled like burning hair (the dog, turns out) and I couldn't feel my left hand or my feet. I've probably never been so scared in my whole life.

But I called the emergency number for Peace Corps and they took good care of me and I'm alive. I'm still not sure what happened, but my computer wasn't plugged in so I'm thinking the electricity surged out of the outlet and was seeking the signal being emitted by my computer battery and I just happened to be in the way. We'd been warned by our safety and security officer that sometimes lightening bolts surge out of the outlets in the house even when they're turned off, but I didn't believe that until Thursday.

So, the moral of the story is: don't play with any electronics when there's a lightening storm in Swaziland. But now that I'm convinced that neither myself nor Maggie is going to die, and now that about 95% of the feeling has returned to my left hand, it's quite funny. In a really "this is my life" kind of way.

Yeah. I survived a lightening strike this week. What did you do?

2 comments:

Erin said...

ok, you win every "worst day ever" conversation for the rest of your life. mom probably told you to do exactly what the safety officer says and you ignored both of them, didn't you?! :)

less than 6 months till we're there!

Vanessa said...

Hey Justine, it's Vanessa again... just wanted to let you know I got my invitation to serve in Swazi :) Hopefully I'll be seeing you as my service progresses!