This was a very strange day. On my way to work (crossing the street) my neighbor asked me if we had gotten water today. Apparently it came on between 3 and 7 this morning. She did her laundry at 3 a.m. Gary had tried the faucet around 6 but nothing had happened and the open taps in the bathroom never signaled there was water as had been our plan. Needless to say we were very disappointed and figured we had lost another week and were figuring out how to scrounge and scrimp.

The Center has been closed for two days as they were out of water and had requested a tank come and fill their jojo. I have been charged with the keys just in case they came when no one was around since I am right across the street. Well, they came just as everyone was leaving around noon today. So the jojo got filled about 3/4 of the way which is a good supply and could have helped us out if we needed it.

Then, about 5 pm the neighbor’s son came over and told us the water was on. Once again, we tried all the inside taps and nothing. The two outside spigots did indeed yield some water and once the air was out of the lines, it got better. The front spigot was stronger so we started filling every container we have. This gets us to about 350 liters of stored water plus our laundry got done (which takes about 180 liters all on its own). It was a great way to bond with our neighbor and the kids as their spigot is right over the fence from ours. We spent the next 2.5 hours filling slowly with the laundry done up to the final rinse which will happen in the morning and then I will hang it all out to dry before I go to work). With the outside spigots off, we do get a little in the pipes in the house once the air is out of the lines but we now understand why we didn’t know we had gotten water during the night. I guess our neighbor will be our warning system! We told them any time, day or night- let us know.

The best part is they offered to send the kids over on Saturday to pull all our weeds for only P10 each!!! We probably need to bake cookies too!

So, every time you brush your teeth, flush a toilet, turn on your dishwasher or washing machine- think what you would do if it just weren’t that simple. Certainly gives you pause and makes me truly appreciate what I have taken for granted for 60 years.