Too much water, not enough water

Okay so I wrote this on Saturday (its tues today) but I hadn't had chance to post it and things have changed a good bit since then. Still I'll post it now and try and updaet you all soon.....

Too much water, not enough water.

So another week has passed in Ethiopia and we have now managed to experience the extremes of water in Africa. When I first arrived it was the end of the rainy season and it seemed so strange to me that while it was raining daily, and there was no running water in the hospital, nobody seemed to be making any effort to store or conserve the water seeing as it was obviously such a scarce commodity.

Since then the dry season has well and truly started and for the last 5 weeks or so it’s been clear blue skies and not a drop of rain, at least until Thursday. On Thursday we stayed in Harar in the evening to go out for dinner. It has emerged that the University has evening classes on the Harar campus and that there is an evening bus leaving at 8pmish to bring staff and students back after their classes so transport home was sorted and dinner out was a possibility.

We have also had another VSO volunteer, Jaq, visiting this week. She is helping Susan and Pat deliver a VSO sponsored medical ethics course for the nurses and midwives at Hiwot Fana hospital.  Many of the things that we take for granted at home such as patient confidentiality don’t really exist here – oh you have HIV, well everyone needs to know so they can’t catch it off you etc.....

So our perfect excuse for dinner out – a visitor and transport home – pizza here we come. Our dinner was lovely and we were back at the campus waiting for the bus home. It had been over cast all day and was just beginning to spot with rain. Unfortunately I had a sudden attack of Ethiopian Delhi belly and headed off to the lovely campus loos with Susan in tow to make sure I didn’t get jumped on by any random students (not very likely but VSO scared us all witless at induction so we err on the side of caution). On the way back the heaven opened. With torrential rain, thunder and lightning with very little warning. It was quite spectacular and we were absolutely soaked within seconds and then spent the rest of the bus ride home shivering. I was so relieved to get warm and dry and tucked up in bed listening to the rain drumming on the roof – reminded me a little of Scotland.

So following the torrential rain any water shortage must be eased for a few days, right? Wrong. We have had no water at the house for the last 24 hours. And like the Ethiopians we have become complacent in storing water because despite the dry spell for the last few weeks it hasn’t really been a problem.  We had even had our boiler fixed and were able to get warm water out of the shower! So our one bucket in the bathroom hasn’t really lasted very long, especially with my ongoing dehli belly equivalent. Thank goodness for dry shampoo and wet wipes!!

Well at least we will learn from our mistakes – when or if the water comes back on we will fill as many storage containers as we can get our hands on. Don’t know how Calum’s going to cope when he arrives though – last time we discussed it he was averaging 4 showers a day!! I did suggest he should try and wean himself off a bit so that Africa isn’t quite such a shock to the system.

Anyway think that’s all for now. I will try and post a few photos of the mansion later.

Jo x