One of the things I noticed about moving to Hintonburg in Ottawa was how often the power cut out. It is an older neighbourhood and the infrastructure is more vulnerable to winds, ice and branches.

Little did I know, that was nothing compared to what we see in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Time and time again, I return home and see the telltale sign of a power cut: the flashing lights. Fortunately, our compound has a generator so our outages are not long. However, most Hondurans do not have a generator back-up and power outages can last a long time.

Even malls are not immune. Maya, Carmen, Camilo and I were riding an escalator down the Novocentro mall when suddenly the lights went out. The escalator cut out, too. We jerked forward, but did not fall.  It was an eerie experience, but it is so common that Hondurans just carried on with a shrug.