Monday 8 October 2012

water or not

Occasionally on the ship we'd run out of water, or get close to running out of water at least, so that we had to limit or ban showers and laundry and reserve the water for drinking. It always felt so ironic that we were living on a ship, completely surrounded by water, but that we could still be without safe water.

This is the second time we're without running water since we arrived in Ethiopia. They are predicting that it will be restored in a few days (or so rumour has it, I am not quite sure who 'they' are). The rains have stopped now, and so we can't help but wonder how much this affects the local people and whether they have extra supplies in their homes.

We have a big barrel outside our door with 'emergency water', albeit not very clean looking (the nurse in me would quite like to swab it and see what grows), but perfectly fine for flushing the toilet and for boiling to cook and drink if necessary. Our filtered drinking water supply has also run out (mental note, keep the jerry can in the kitchen full rather than empty), but a friend says they have enough to share some of theirs. We also have some 'treat' bottles of Mirinda in the fridge - a bit like fanta orange and appletizer, which I am sure the boys won't be complaining about drinking at dinner time after their cross country running. 

So really, we may smell a bit for the next couple of days, but actually we can't complain very much. It is always good to be reminded not to take water for granted.

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