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When the Lights Went Out


A Night That Changed Everything

It was just after 7 PM when the power went out.

story by Byiringiro Olivier

At first, no one paid much attention. Power cuts were common in the small town of Nyagasambu. People assumed it would come back in an hour or two. But as minutes turned to hours, the silence began to stretch. No music from radios. No buzzing of televisions. No lights flickering through windows. Just darkness and quiet.

Phones were dying. Fridges were warming. Boredom started to creep in.

But something strange happened that night.

An old man lit a charcoal stove outside and started boiling tea. A neighbor, curious and tired of sitting in the dark, brought a chair to join him. Then came another. A group of children, free from screens and homework, began playing hide-and-seek by moonlight.

Soon, the entire neighborhood seemed to spill out of their homes.

Someone lit a fire and roasted maize. A young woman began singing softly. Another picked up a guitar. A mother brought her baby outside to cool off and ended up chatting with someone she hadn’t spoken to in years. Laughter echoed. Stories flowed. Strangers became friends.

For the first time in a long while, people really saw each other.

There were no bright screens, no background noise just human presence.

Some elders told stories of their youth, when there was no electricity at all. The younger ones listened, fascinated. A teenager took photos in the moonlight, saying, “This is the most alive this place has ever felt.”

The power came back at 11:43 PM.

Lights blinked on. Phones buzzed. TV volumes rose again.

But nobody moved.

They stayed outside just a little longer. They had remembered something that had been lost in the noise of modern life: connection.

 Reflection

That night, the darkness revealed a kind of light no bulb could offer. It reminded the people of Nyagasambu that while electricity powers homes, it’s human bonds that power hearts.

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