I believe in (small) miracles

When I wrote that I hoped not to be off the grid for too long, I didn’t really think I would be off the grid…

Much more to write about my time in Pacitan, but I’ll start with the events that led up to my watching of the US Slovenia tie and my commentary of this frustrating game.

In our first 48 hours in Pacitan, we had about four hours of electricity. We’re told that its not always this way in Pringkiku Village, where we’ve set up shop for the research site, but there was an explosion at the main tower and whole village had been on and off since Wednesday. This would have been acceptable – minus the fact that my netbook was fairly crucial to getting work done - but how do we not watch the US Slovenia game?? Galih, Rahmi and Ica (the team!) recognize how vital this game is to me, and hence the morale of the group. After numerous calls to the electric company we’re told Saturday is the earliest it will be fixed. I might be able to swallow missing this game however our water pump for washing runs on electric so if we don’t get power, we have no water. This is becoming an issue.

Starting at about 4:30pm Friday we start to contemplate the dire situation we find ourselves in. It’s going to be dark in about 45 minutes. Can we find a hotel in Pactian City? How do the four of us get there with one scooter? This is a problem. We continue to discuss potential scenarios when the electricity comes back on! We immediately sprint to start charging all phones and computers, and filling the water just in case… just in the case the electricity goes out again…. which it did AGAIN, after about 15 minutes of rejuvenation. We’re deflated. Morale is low. We again debate how we can escape this house for a night or two until the problem is fixed. After a frantic half hour, during which I retreat to my room to pout, dumbfounded as to what we should do, the team discovers that we are the only house on the street sans light. They recruit friends from outside who realize that we essentially just needed to flip a breaker to get the power back on. Voila. It’s a miracle. I’m going to watch this game after all.

The power stays on unbelievably until pregame starts. They show the team walking through the tunnel with those little kids, the luckiest kids on earth at this moment, and suddenly, the channel goes black. I’m not kidding. Galih tries to fix this with the satellite for a few minutes. I step in sad and frantic and angry. Rahmi tries to help and keep me calm. Galih scoots down the street to the house behind the bodega on the corner and discovers a pack of friendly Pringkuku-ians watching the match. He insists its OK for us to go watch with them. I’m desperate and already feeling like an animal at the zoo with the amount of stares I get around the village, so I might as well be happy and watch the game.

We realize at some point that the satellite tv at our house blacks out the WC games. There are no words for how I feel about this. Looks like we’ll be back at the bodega for the Algeria game.

Wow. If we win that game, I’d believe in big miracles. Let’s start there.. we could have won the game but the officiating, per the usual US luck, sucks this time. I’m not sure what happened on Edu’s goal.. along with several other questionable calls. I guess we used up all of our good luck in the England draw. And now being slightly connected to the world I understand this ref is getting the boot.. GOOD!

It’s a small miracle I didn’t embarrass myself in front of the house full of Indonesians who let us in. Again, I can’t breathe anytime the ball comes into our defensive zone. I am certain they think I’m crazy here.

THANK YOU Landon. And THANK YOU Michael Bradley for two beautiful goals. Indah. I take back what I said from the England game.

And it seems that the sh*t's really hit the fan in England camp. I. Love. it.

Maybe small miracles- like having electricity and water for bathing and squeezing out 2-2 ties – is the best we can hope for. After the highs and lows we’ve experienced in Pacitan, I will gladly take the small ones.