Struck by Lightning?

Have you ever played the game never have I ever?  It’s generally a drinking game where someone claims that they have never done something, and anyone who has done it has to put a finger down.  Usually it is to five, and whoever puts down all five fingers first, loses the game (but don’t they win in the long run? Really?) Anyway, I bring this up because there are a lot of things I’ve never done.  We all have an infinite amount of things we’ve never done.  Who here has been to the Galapagos Islands?  Seriously, I want to know, if you have, leave me a message.  

I mean, look at those tortoises!  They're huge!  Apparently you used to be able to ride them in the zoo, but that practice has since been stopped.  Aww :(

Anyway, my point is there are certain things I never want to do, or expect to.  Being struck by lightning is one of these things.  However, If someone were to say that for never have I ever, if they were to say “I have never been struck by lightning!” I would be hard pressed to keep my finger up.

I, of course, am being overly dramatic.  I haven’t been fully struck by lightning, but I was close to it. Let me tell the story.

I was at the regional house, being a bit antisocial and watching a movie by myself in the library.  When I first got to Kedougou I had a hard time connecting with people at the regional house.  I don’t know, it’s such a tight-knit group of people and although they were very accepting, I couldn’t help but feel like I was intruding on a very large region wide inside joke.  I was overwhelmed when I first got there and sort of developed a reputation of being that shy quiet guy.  From there it snowballed: they thought I was quiet, they treated me like I was quiet, and I became more shy.  It was a hard cycle that only I could break out of, and I eventually did.  Now I feel so at home at the regional house and everyone here is amazing, but at that time I was still in my head about it.

So there I was, alone in the library watching a movie… during a thunder storm.  Of course, in retrospect, being on electronics during a lightning storm was a bad idea.  Even worse of an idea was to have my computer plugged into the socket.  Even worse, my laptop has a metal body.  I was sitting there when all of a sudden I heard a deafening BOOM!  

Now, I’ve heard thunder and I’m sure you have too.  I’m not sure what your experiences in life have been, but it is a sound of quite a different nature when it is literally on top of you.  I can’t describe it, it’s different from thunder in the distance, or even thunder up close.  It is a heart stopping noise, so thick it is almost tangible in the room.  Or maybe the heart stopping part was the electricity.  Yes, the lightning had struck the library hut, and thus the socket.  I’m pretty sure that the wall socket isn’t grounded, but I think that the plug for my computer is.  Of course, I’m not really sure what being “grounded” against lightning means, so I may be way off.  If someone would like to explain to me the process of grounding electricity, I’m all ears.

Yes, this diagram is really helpful

Anyway, so the lights get knocked off, and in that same moment I feel quite a jolt of electricity shoot through my body.  I mean, it wasn’t a full lightning shock, nothing anywhere near it, alhamdouliliah.  But it was still enough to thoroughly freak me out and make my heart skip a beat.  Oh, and my computer got knocked out, but survived.  That leads me to believe it wasn’t that bad of a shock.  So was I struck by lightning? Eh, sort of? I’ll let you decide. 

As for the rest of the story.  Ashleigh (may she rest in peace [her service ended, so she went home, well, Cameroon, but anyway, she is dead to us, so we give her her proper respect]) came running through the rain into the library.

“Are you alright?!” she exclaimed.

“I think so, I was connected, but just got a shock”

“Well, as long as everything is OK”,
and she walked back into the kitchen (which isn’t connected to the library, nothing is connected, just a series of huts).  I went to follow her back to the kitchen since my computer was dead.  We lit a few candles and talked while we waited for the storm to die down.  See, we both wanted to get back to the sleeping area, which of course was in a different hut, but the rain was just so heavy and there was so much lightning.  The flash flood had drowned the whole compound to the point where it was more of a swamp than anything.  Because of all the water on the ground and the frequency of lightning and the fact that the office with a tin roof that kept getting hit by lightning was right outside of the door, we were daunted from running back to the sleeping huts.  Every now and then Ashleigh would get up and say “I’m just going to make a run for it!” and would walk to the step of the kitchen, and just when she was about to sprint lightning would strike nearby and make us cower back into the kitchen.

We waited like this for what must have been an hour, but we were getting tired and cold and wanted to get out of our wet clothes.  We basically both said “screw it, let’s run!” We walked to the landing of the kitchen, and counter to three.  1… no sound.   2…lightning strikes the building next door, but we aren’t daunted. 3… and we were off, running wildly to our separate sleeping areas.  Thankfully no lightning struck and I made it back happy, albeit soaked, to the sleeping hut.  As I enter Jubal looks up and says “you look drenched!” I’m glad that that was the worst of it, after getting shocked through my computer and running through a waterlogged lightning-filled regional house.  Welcome to Kedougou rainy season.

Ramadan Moon