Water

Water is a precious commodity around here.  In the caserio de Munoces where we teach the water may run for a couple hours every 5 to 8 days...and then only to people who are in the lower part of the community...the pump can't get water up the hill to the upper half.  There are no such things as bathrooms...think outhouse...or showers or bathtubs.  Water, if they get any, is collected in a cement basin called a pila.  Most people in Munoces walk a mile down the mountain to a stream to bathe or wash their clothes. 
Things are better in the city of Berlin where we are living.  At the pastoral house we get water for a couple of hours every other morning so we can take an actual shower every other day...and they even have an electrical gadget on the shower head that allows for hot water!!  At least that was true for our first week here.  But....we have received no water since last Wednesday and the rumor is that this may go on for some time.  At first we thought it was caused by some road construction taking place in front of the house...and then we heard that it was caused by a huge water line break and that the whole city is without running water. 

The team has been hauling in water from a nearby community that has it's own water system so our pilas have adequate water.  They brought in an additional barrel of dirtier water for us to use for flushing so we won't go through the water in our pila so quickly.  So we can stay clean...but no more hot showers.  Bucket showers are okay...the first bucket of cold water over the head is the hardest...it gets easier from there.

The big pila outside where we wash our dishes and our clothes was completely empty last night but they have been hauling water today so the pila is now half full and most of the big buckets are full as well. 

Of course, we can't drink any of that water...I don't even use it for my toothbrush or my contact lens.  So we go through lots of bottled water in the house. 

The pastoral team is taking good care of us under difficult circumstances.  All that water they are hauling is HEAVY!  At least they don't have to haul it on their heads or on their shoulders for miles like the people of the caserios.  We don't realize how lucky we are to live where we can take water for granted.