Where was Debbie when the lights went out AGAIN??

Village power, or lack thereof, is really starting to get ANNOYING. First, a little background story....Kipnuk is so far from anything that we aren't actually connected to any sort of power grid. The whole village is run on generators. That means, if the generator goes out, the lights go off. Well, that has happened A LOT lately. The generator has gone down for at least an hour EVERY SINGLE DAY for the past ten days. Now, you may be saying to yourself...self, what's the big deal if the power is off for an hour or so? That doesn't seem too inconvenient. That wouldn't be terribly inconvenient except that our heat runs on electricity and our house isn't very well insulated. If it were around 50 degrees, that wouldn't be a huge deal. BUT, when it is about -20 degrees, it starts to become a problem.
Well, last night the power went off AGAIN. The guys from the village called and told us that the power was going to be off for the rest of the night because the generator was torn up and they didn't have the part needed to fix it. Oh, and we had our fifth blizzard in like two weeks yesterday so there was a LOT of snow and terrible winds. Lots of snow plus 60+ mph winds=COLD!!!!! Well, the school has its own generator for times when the village generator goes down and the school still has to run. It is also connected to the majority of "teacher housing." Did you catch that word majority? Guess whose house doesn't fall into the majority? You got it. MINE. The generator is right next to my house but, for some reason, the lines don't run power to my little green home. I had to seek out other shelter for the night. I spent the night at the home of the ever-wonderful Kris and Paula. Thank goodness they feel sorry for a fellow Southerner here in the Frozen North.
Miraculously, they had managed to get the village power back on this morning so I was able to go home to a house that was above meat packing temperatures. I had some breakfast and was doing some laundry when the power went out AGAIN!!!!!! It is very frustrating. You would think that, in an area where a whole village with elders and babies, they would take better care--even preventative care--of their generators.
Another added bonus to all this frozen loveliness is that we had to go to school yesterday, which was Saturday. We were making up the day we missed on Wednesday when they called school off because of a blizzard/white out. If I say that I am counting down the days until school is out, you can believe it. This winter has been a very harsh one, even according to the Natives. I really like the village and the people, but I am ready to be back in Alabama.
Not in the dark at this moment.
Debbie