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Blackouts

Writer's picture: Luciano CamiloLuciano Camilo

Since I moved to Moscow, from my lovely little town Ubatuba, my use of electricity has become something unwatched. I am nearly always plugging devices to power sockets and I never consider that I may find myself somewhere without energy. I have never had to deal with such an issue for any long period of time. To say I did, we might then count 2 hours maximum. If, in this sense, a problem of serious proportions would happen to me now, that could cause me a great time of stress.

Unlikely, one of the things I miss most these days are the eventual blackouts we used to have back in my village.

I don’t know if, during the over two years that I have lived abroad, the electricity distribution improved in some way so as to avoid such problems. I know that back in those days, the blackouts were a reason for locals to mind the condition of the food they stored in fridges or to look up to the street lamps and wait impatiently for the lights to be switched back on, so one could walk the street with some more safety.

Our TV set was so constantly used that, when the power was off, being home felt odd, especially during night time when the soap operas were broadcast.


Oh the days when we would sit on the couch after dinner time, waiting anxiously for the new chapter to start or the final match of the football league. And suddenly, power is down. Everything goes dark. I swore a word for every human on this planet because of those moments.


In anger, feeling wronged, we would stand up and grab one or two candles out of the shelf. I would have one, stick it to a small plate and place it on the kitchen table. I would then sit by and just accept things as they were.


We usually remember the colours of things we love. We remember the smell, the touch, the sound. Incredibly, what I miss most from those moments is the actual emptiness it exposed. It was almost an absolute silence, faintly filled by the roar of one or two cars that would drive down the street. The rooms were left in complete murk, which only faded if one would walk in.


Nowadays, as a usual urban person, I pin to my to-do list with plans that I doubt can fit in the same place. There’s so many things I wanna do and, when I think about what I need most to make these plans work out, all I wish for is a place where I am totally on my own, forgotten by the world and where my ideas are crystal clear.


Unfortunately for me, blackouts are over.




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