Babel

I now have a new appreciation for the term “lost in translation.” Last Friday I was sitting in my house eating lunch when the power went out, since Paul the maintenance director was on vacation the responsibility for driving down the hill and starting up the generator to restore power to the hospital and mission was mine, so I quickly grabbed my keys and rushed out the door. As I approached the warehouse I noticed smoke coming out of the small concrete shed where the high-voltage power cables from the energy company connects to our grid to supply Bongolo with energy. Dr. Thompson and Dr. Thelander were already on the scene and the maintenance workers were quickly finding a way to put out the fire as I pulled up in my heavy-duty golf cart. Although the fire was serious, I knew that it was contained in the tiny concrete-walled shed with no other source of fuel besides the plastic conduit-box and wire insulation that was currently on fire. One of the workers grabbed a water bottle to put out the small electrical fire and as he approached the fire a twinge of terror seized me as I envisioned him being electrocuted as he poured water all over several high-voltage wires! So in my panic I yell at him “no agua! no agua!” he then gave me a funny look and continued to pour water all over the fire putting it out as Dr. Thelander explained to me that the power had already been cut and it was ok.

I then went on to calmly start the generator which restored power to the station, I then replayed the entire event in my head and started laughing when I realized why the worker had looked at me so strangely; I had said to him “no water! no water!” in Spanish! I don’t even know Spanish! When I think of Spanish words the first thing that comes to mind is taco, but somehow in the heat of the moment when my mind was reaching for the French word for water (l’eau) agua is what came out, the mind truly is a mysterious thing.

Because of the fire we had to run the Generator for about 30 hours straight,
burning 200 gallons of diesel fuel.