Water Wars

Have you ever lived in a third world country?

Just before I left for Peru, I met a customer at work who had spent a lot of time living in Lima. After having met a potential Spanish conversation partner from Columbia who warned me against all the "danger" in Peru, I was thrilled to meet someone who had actually lived there before, someone who could give me the "real story" about what to expect. But I was uncomfortable when she asked me about living in a third world country. I don´t know whether Peru technically qualifies as a "third world country" or not, but thinking of my destination as a country much less-developed than my first-world U.S. home was something I hadn´t really done before hearing this question.

When I thought about a trip to Peru, what came to mind were things like seeing Machu Picchu, learning to speak Spanish better, and taking an adventure of a lifetime because I have the freedom at this point in my life to explore and see a different part of the world. In January, I was ready to have my ideas of simplicity shaken; however, I didn´t imagine things like 22-hour/never-ending bus rides with seats that didn´t recline, curves that were intolerable for my stomach, and un-crossible flood waters. I didn´t imagine waking up in the middle of the night gasping for breath because I wasn´t adjusted to the altitude. I didn´t imagine lighting a gas stove with a match every time I wanted to make tea or cook an egg (a task that sounds simple, but left me afraid of blowing up the kitchen or loosing my eyebrows the first few times). I didn´t imagine going more than 24 hours without running water.

Matthew´s last post was about how easy it is to go on with our daily lives when the electricity randomly goes out. We loose our lights, television, and internet access (which we have to walk down the block to use anyway), so we just find a flashlight or light a candle and go on with whatever we were doing before. Living without running water is a completely different story.

Tuesday afternoon, we came back from school for a quick stop before lunch and found that there was no water. Matthew had a toilet emergency and decided to use the restroom, even though flushing was not a possibility. When we came back much later, the water was back on and all was well, or so we thought. I boiled water for tea and put the excess in our thermos, not knowing this was to be our last water gathering opportunity for more than a day. We went out to eat pollo a la brasa with our Idaho friends Dan and Diane (our first visitors!) and when we came back, had the enjoyment of discovering we were again without water.

It wasn´t a big deal to me at that point because we had gone a night without water before. The last time, we just had to brush our teeth using bottled water and the water was back on in the morning, without any major lifestyle changes. This time, it was a bigger deal for Matthew, who was still experiencing some uncomfortable stomach action and was worried he´d have to use the toilet again during the night. And guess what? He did.

In the morning, we had no functioning toilet and a lovely smell developing in the bathroom. Also, it was the "other" day in my "every other day" shower routine, so I had to skip that. I just applied more deodorant and hoped for the best in our long day to come.

Matthew and I had been asked to be the "padrinos" of a fifth grade class for the school´s olympic day, and had to be at the school early to deliver the new volley and soccer balls that we had bought as their gifts. When we ran back to the house between gift delivery and the torch lighting ceremony to grab some last-minute things for our day at the stadium, I locked the key in the room. Great addition to an already annoying situation. We left for the stadium and joined the parade of students/athletes, got decorated in streamers and I was given a boquet of roses (complete with thorns, thank you very much), and stayed as long as we could bear the sun, which was until about 11:30. (Approprately enough, the kids were playing in an empty pool during a break between olympic events, and yes, sliding down that slide and jumping off before the drop into the deep end.)

Luckily, the kitchen that we share with the other family who lives in our house is unlocked during the day, so we relaxed there until our sobrina, Dana, came home from preschool and could crawl through the tiny window in the closet next to the room and unlock the door from the inside (of course, no copy of our key exists). Matthew took a nap on the couch while I jealously watched our neighbor wash her clothes in her courtyard.

After Dana saved the day, Matthew and I gathered all the empty plastic bottles we had acquired from buying drinkable water and headed to the school to collect as much water as we could. I loved the look on one of the student´s faces as he tried to figure out what we were doing. After several puzzling minutes, he asked if we were going to sell the water. He was astonished to find out that we didn´t have any water in our house. We headed back to boil some of the water to have some that would be safe for drinking and finally flushed the toilet using a great portion of our supply (did you know it takes more than 2 liters of water for one flush??).

By the time I excitedly yelled "Hay agua!" ("There´s water!") around 9 p.m., resourceful Roxana had already gathered several large tubs of water over a period of hours by waiting for a bucket to fill with the sink downstairs that, for some reason, let out water in drips. I felt such joy to be able to brush my teeth with running water, to flush the toilet and wash my face without a problem. By the time I woke up the next morning, Roxana had already cleaned the entire bathroom, showered, bathed Dana, washed all the dishes that had accumulated over the past day, and cooked breakfast. Super Mom.

It was great to continue life as normal. I showered, with a little fear that the water would go off as I was all soapy, but no problems for me. A little later, the water was off again as Matthew was about to shower, but luckily came back on in about 10 minutes.

It´s the fact that I had no control over whether the water is on or off that bothered me the most. It´s not that I used up my supply and the water ran out; some external force had control over whether we had running water or not. The whole lack of water ordeal was probably caused by some accident associated with the new road that is getting "installed" here in town. Having the water turned off is not a typical thing here, or probably in most of Peru. But it didn´t seem like people were fazed by it, just annoyed at the extra work to get water. I just kept thinking about how different things would be in a similar situation in the U.S. (which, as you might imagine, isn´t the best thing to do in a situation like that). For me, it was another harsh reminder of how fortunate I have been, and that I shouldn´t take running water for granted.

Someone told me that it has been predicted that the next big wars are going to be over water. I can completely imagine and understand this. Water is so important for daily life, much more than electricity. In this past experience not many people were without water, so we could gather water from the school and from the drippy sink downstairs. But what if the majority was without water? Who would be as willing to share?

Even though the water is icy, I´m happy I can shower again. And you can believe I´m not the only one!

Note (Saturday 22 May): I returned to the house last night after publishing this post and learned there had been a flood in the kitchen! Roxana had come home during the day to find the water turned off again. She left for Cusco and accidentally left the faucet on full force without knowing, as no water was coming out at the time. The owner of the house came upstairs later in the afternoon to find several inches of water covering the entire kitchen after she noticed some water leaking through the ceiling downstairs. Although some things are still drying out, nothing was ruined, not even the projector that was sitting in a box on the floor. Feast or famine. Flood or drought? AND btw, the water went off this morning again. Haven´t been home all day, so we´re crossing our fingers that it´s back on by now.

Note (Tuesday 25 May): The water was not back on Saturday night when we got home, and hasn´t been turned on since then. We´ve been surviving with a giant tub full of water from a hose connected to the roof next door. The reason we´re without water is because they´re installing new pipes downstairs, and as it´s already late, I have no hope that it´ll be done today. Today the landlady told me that the water was going to be turned on very soon when I asked to fill another bucket so I could flush the toilet. Hardly anything is ever finished "on schedule." sigh. Maybe tomorrow?