Independant ? woman

I think in Africa you really learn what it means to be dependant. Take today: after an (extended) Saturday lunch I was lazily reading a book until it got dark (it does get dark pretty soon, just before 6pm). Time to switch on the electricity generator. Our house does have a small gasoline generator in the backyard. Antonio, the night-guard, starts the engine (I still haven’t learned how the thing needs to be switched on, but from Antonio’s manoeuvres, I can tell it’s difficult and needs a lot of brute force… plus I’m scared the thing will explode or something if I touch it). Today, all goes well for maybe half an hour and then the annoying (blessed) sound of the motor goes off… and seconds later all the lights out. Little explosion of swearwords in my mouth (so glad to be able to swear in languages people don’t understand around here!). What now? I can’t really go to bed at 7 pm and I’ve spent most of the day at my neighbours already… While I sit in the dark and wonder what to do next, Antonio tries to start the motor again, without luck. I’m almost accustomed to the idea that it will be a (really) early night for me, when Antonio decides to go and get Lino, who’s the night-guard at our little pharmacy. Lino is the “expert” on generators around here and the one who owns a couple of very useful DIY tools. Half an hour later Antonio reappears with Lino and they start to work on the engine.
Thinking of it, “reappearing” is not exactly the right verb, s the only reason I know the two are approaching are their voices which suddenly emerge from the complete darkness.
Another hour later light is back! Although I try my best to understand what was wrong with the generator, I really don’t understand what the two men are extendedly talking about… I’m just glad to be able to read a little before going to bed and not to have another candle-light dinner (seriously, I’ve stopped seeing the romantic side of candle-light dinners).
If it wasn’t for Antonio and Lino and a whole bunch of people that work with me here, I would probably be sitting in the dark, eating cold food from a can and be terribly miserable!