May 19th 2010 – Water and Light

Snippets today … and even though these are somewhat “old” events, I wanted to share them anyway.

One VERY good and special thing happened today - after about 11 days of NO running water - we finally seem to have it back. And this morning I had a nice hot shower for the first time since the 5th of May. It was a little bit of heaven. We DID have about an hour’s worth of slowly running water on the 9th day – but not enough even to fill our pilas. So we’ve been hoarding our laundry – doing just what we absolutely needed – using minimal water to clean up and thanking God that we had no delegation during this ‘drought’ –

Apparently a pump broke at the town reservoir.

So also this morning laundry is getting done. They are doing the big things like sheets, towels and blankets. During our dry time, the Pastoral Team brought their clothes back home to their ‘river’ to wash. And the problem there – since they are relatively close to town (only a 40 minute walk) – LOTS of people from town in the nearby ‘colonias’ (neighborhoods) were taking THEIR clothes to the same river. Those who normally had running water every other day – those who normally would not need to go to a river to wash their clothes (and themselves for that matter) – were creating crowds at the ‘Alejandria Laundromat.’ So the Team was having to get there by 2 or 3 a.m. if they didn’t want to stand in line. Blanca said some people have been going to the river at 1 a.m. And they still had to wait for someone ahead of them.

And the water in the pila system at the river has gotten gross with all the use and with the minimal water flow to wash the stuff away. We are still not getting much rain either to help with that.

There are SO many things I STILL take for granted.

Another story – this one is just for fun.

I was just nodding off to sleep two nights ago. I was almost there. And you know how sometimes you open your eyes a little as you are falling asleep? Maybe not. Well, I do that sometimes. And I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Seemed like a flash. So of course I froze up wondering what the heck it could be. So I opened my eyes wide and tried to see if I could see anything. I was on red alert! And it happened again. A FLASH on the floor near the foot of my bed. It was a FIREFLY! So I turned on my light to get a closer look. Poor thing was on his back, feet up and flashing. I think he must have bonked his head on something because he was just lying there.

I should probably have put him out of his misery. But I went back to bed instead. And I watched him flash for a while. Then again out of the corner of my other eye, I saw a flash outside my bathroom window (which is screened). There was quite the light show between the two of them. I felt sad for my little buddy on the floor. He’ll probably never meet up with his friends again.

I should have taken him outside. But then one of our birds would have eaten him in his weakened state I’m sure.