Tuesday, April 12, 2011

"Necessities"

Remember that time like 7 or 8 years ago when the power went out for about 12 or less hours and everyone freaked out. I remember I was out at my grandparent's camp with my family... I vividly remember the ONE time the power went out for more than an hour, "The Blackout". I can guarentee not many people here remember one of the last times the power went out for more than an hour, while it's recently been happening about once a month. And nope, not everyone has a generator, we just chill (as much as one can chill in the heat). But, TIA.



Now, can you remember the last time you've not had water flowing out of your tap in Canada? Never? Ya, never. Well here, I'm living in an area where ambasadors live and my water goes off daily. Now that's TIA cause EVERYone has a polytank (big plastic cylinder that holds water) for just these situations. This is where the bucket showers come in. Not so TIA is entire neighbourhoods not having water for weeks or enough money for the water truck to come and fill up their poly tank. People have their ways of collecting water, so life continued, but that's another thing. The water in the tap isn't even drinkable for some of the people living here.


I'm not complaining about water distribution here cause it's definately in progress and a big feat, it's just that I will never think of water in the same way again. Like I have 2 buckets that I keep full of water just in case the water stops flowing. These buckets are the same 2 buckets that I use to do my wash. Now, I always feel nervous about doing a wash because the water could stop flowing half way through (with my luck this often happens) and then I'm left with half a bucket of water not knowing when the water will come back on! Talk about anxiety.


This whole blog was inspired when I was walking out of work yesterday and I saw a huge water truck spraying water into the gutter. At first I thought they had some sort of business going on, but then I realized the truck was stuck in the mud and pouring all it's water into the gutter so it would get lighter for people to push it out. I've been living with a toxic toilet, dirty clothes, showering at work or with travel wipes (due to no water coming out of the tap OR polytank for a week), and they were spraying like a tonne (ya, a tonne!) of water into the dirty gutter for nobody to use! It was painful. Not quite as painful as bucket showers with well water, but still painful.

2 comments:

  1. DUMB TRUCK!!! I wrote a song about the lack of water and energy once! Maybe Brandon can sing it sometime.

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  2. It's true - we're so lucky with water, we don't even know! It's definitely going to be one of our more valuable resources (and we should stop pipelining it to the desert golf courses in the states!)

    It certainly makes ya think. . .and then be super grateful!

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