Paa-nee

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.  ~Thomas Fuller

Paa-nee. Water. In so many ways, life revolves around it. I know for one, that after a long day in Delhi, a shower or bath makes me feel like new again. Or during that hot day in the city, being able to have a cold, filtered glass of water makes all the difference. Just being able to quench your thirst.

This past Sunday evening, I went to take a bucket bath and realized that the water pressure was slowly dying down. So I figured I would just take a bath on Monday instead. But I woke up on Monday to find that there was no water at all. The same was true for when I woke up in Tuesday. And after a few days with no water, my thoughts went to my life back in Opuwo, Namibia when I would have jugs and bottles filled to the brim with water just in case anything like this would happen. But I wasn't prepared for such a thing here. I took my water-filled life for granted. It's funny, I feel like everywhere I go, I always have at least one blog post about water. In the U.S., it's so easy to take it for granted. Bottled water, sparkling water, 20 minute hot showers, long relaxing baths, ice cubes in your summer drink.....After living abroad for a while now though , I've come to dial my life down to the basics. It's been so refreshing being able to focus on the things that truly matter in life. Because after a while, who really needs sparkling water anyway?

By Monday though I needed to figure something out. Luckily I had some baby wipes with me and used that as a temporary solution to a bath. Then tried to wash my hair with the one liter bottle of water that I had. Man, I milked that water for all its worth! I'm just glad it's not December or January yet, because washing your hair with cold water in the winter is no fun at all!

Both Monday and Tuesday after coming back from work, I would try to motion to the young woman that's living with me that the water in the rest of the flat was working but not in my bathroom. I think she understood but the language barrier makes it difficult. Finally today on Wednesday after coming back from work, I was desperately ready for a good bucket bath. I was able to talk with the young woman's husband who speaks some English about my troubles with my water. He understood right away. I found out that with the water shut off earlier in the week, it had made air bubbles in the water tank on the roof. He let the water run for half an hour and what do you know but not only did I now have hot water flowing, but my shower head was working too!

When I first moved into the apartment here, I thought I wouldn't have hot water and of course not a hot shower. But six weeks after being here in Delhi, I had my first hot shower in the apartment. And it was the best one I've had in a while.