WATER - do we just assume when we open the tap that water will come flowing out for our drinking, cooking, laundry, bathing needs? It is a necessity of life that we just can't do without. The reason I'm writing about this now is because we have NO WATER on campus and haven't had since early yesterday morning. This happened with no warning so I didn't even have a chance to "save" water in buckets, etc. Living in a hot and sweaty country makes this even more than inconvenient. Yesterday we survived on 5 gallons of filtered water and 1 large bucket of regular water. They are hoping to have water back to us by this afternoon. First thing I'll do is take a shower then wash dishes!

But this situation has given me reason to remember some experiences with water or lack thereof in our lives in Haiti. Our first year in Haiti we lived in Verrettes in the Artibonite Valley in central Haiti. We had no electricity but did have wonderful water available in our house in the kitchen and shower. We did have to use an "outhouse" so that was a bit of an adjustment but I learned how to make enough noise upon entering so that any resident critters ran away until I left again.

Then we moved to Gonaives where we had 24 hour electricity and very poor water supply. Water would come slowly into a pipe in our yard for just a few hours and we used a hose to store it into metal drums to use. We had an outdoor shower and outhouse there also so as a new "green" (my favorite color by the way) missionary I was being integrated into the reality of life here.

We moved to Port-au-Prince in 1979 and then had both electricity and water. We had great electricity and pretty good water supply at first. Over the years the water situation took some interesting turns. Our kids could testify to the "roof runoff showers" we all took many times in our bathing suits when it rained and we had no water or were in a water shortage. One time during dry season Cindy and I were together and I said how desperate I was for a good shower and to be able to wash my hair. Rain wasn't in my thinking because it had been so dry when that afternoon it started to rain. We called our kids home and got into swimsuits to shower. Of course all the debris (leaves etc) would come off the roof too but that was okay. It felt so good to get more than a sponge bath. We also had times when the kids were little when they'd bathe standing in a basin in the shower and I'd pour a small sand bucket of water over them to wet them down and then soap them up and put another sand bucket of water over them to rinse them. As they got older that system didn't work as well and we hoped for rain fed roof runoff showers!

Last night walking home I said to myself that if it rained I would just stand under the roof in my dress and let the water run over me but alas it didn't rain. I also had a barrel out to catch rain water but it is still empty this morning. Thankfully it is November and not July, August or September and it is a little cooler.

Early on I learned to appreciate water more than electricity if I only had the choice of one or the other. Now I'm spoiled and like having both but times like these remind me of how nice it is to have water!!