It’s not quite 5pm on Tuesday, and I’m sitting in a room with no power. Of course, we all know that when I wrote, “no power,” I meant, “no electricity.” Those two phrases are nearly synonymous for we who live in the 21st century. And, sitting here for the past hour, I can understand why.

If you are an American, I’d be willing to bet that you can probably count on one hand the times you’ve been “without power” in the past few years. I’d also guess that it was for a short period of time. And I’d further venture that the reason you “lost power” was due to a storm– an “act of God,” if you will.

Here in Ecuador, this is the second time today I’ve sat in a room, powerless. This morning, I woke up to the sudden silence of the AC crunching off. I took a shower in very cold water. I thanked my stars I charged my camera batteries the night before. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do the work I flew here for. And now, this afternoon, I’ve sat in this room for over an hour, feeling the heat slowly and deliberately creep back in, stifling and damp.

Most interesting of all is that I lost power, not due to a storm, but due to a government. An act of Man, if you will. And I hear from our friend Emily that this has been happening every day, for up to four hours at a time.

Sit back and imagine, if you want to, how your life would be different if you had to function in eight hours of electricity free living…every day. Go ahead. I’ll wait. I have some time on my hands. I can’t get on the web to Skype my wife or check my mail or Facebook. I can only keep typing here for another hour or so on battery. I can’t watch TV. I’m starting to break a bit of a sweat. And in just an hour or so, there will be no light to do much of anything, but sit. And wait.

I joked in the last blog that I could proudly say I was humbled because I sat in a middle seat on the way down. But losing power…now that’s a whole ‘nother story. To realize you cannot rely on “simple,” fundamental things like electricity…it just kinda boggles your mind if you think about it, doesn’t it?

Speaking of fundamental, it raises really core questions like, why do we deserve a stable, basically benevolent government that keeps the lights on, or police that are there for our safety and well being rather than to instill fear and seek bribes in exchange for protection. Or teachers that don’t charge our kids for supplies that are supposed to be free. Secretly, of course, we think we’re kind of a big deal. But I’ve met a lot of people who aren’t “us”, and they’re pretty cool too. But for some reason, they don’t get all those things I mentioned.

It is SO HARD for we in (most of) America to comprehend that most of the world doesn’t live anything like we do. And what a blessing/curse it is that we don’t even have to even think about it. It’s a blessing for obvious reasons. But I honestly think it’s a curse as well, in that we are in a unique position to do something about it and often don’t. I don’t mean get the electricity turned on in Guayaquil (Obviously!) But there ARE ways we can leverage our power to help all these wonderful people, like those I hung out with today, who have so little in their own lives.

I really do believe that, if you’ve taken the time to read this, thoughtfully, that act alone will slightly alter the course of your average American, electrified life. Who knows where you’ll go next?

Assuming that the electricity DOES come back on here today, I’ll plan to post this blog, and the one from last night. I think I’ve learned my social justice lesson for today. And I hope you’ve found it worth reading.

But as I sit here in the fading light, the slightly disquieting thing is realizing that, lesson learned or not, I’ll probably be sitting here again tomorrow. With no power.