Today, we had a water outage. It started sometime around noon and continued all day. What we didn’t know, but everyone else did, is that it was a scheduled 24 hour outage. They’re announced on the news on both television and radio. Fahim and I don’t own either a radio or a television. We didn’t know.
Because of all the rigamarole we go through to make sure we have boiled drinking water, we have a decent supply there – between what’s in the water dispenser, the pot we use for boiling water, and our supply of water in the fridge, we have somewhere in the neighborhood of about 23 litres of water on hand. But since we didn’t know how long the outage was for, we didn’t want to use too much of it for anything other than drinking or the bare essentials.
In the evening after Fahim came home, I whined about how I couldn’t take a shower – it was a hot day and I felt icky and drained. By this time, we’d been without water for close to 7 or 8 hours, which is longer than we have previously been without. Fahim started wondering if perhaps we had a tank and we needed to flip a switch somewhere to get water. Fahim went outside and into our carport to see if there was anything down there. Meanwhile, our next door neighbor’s servant was outside, and he and Fahim started talking, and Fahim asked if he knew how long the water outage was for. 24 hours, and it was announced on the news. He offered Fahim water if we needed it. Thank you, no, we have enough for now. Fahim turned on the outside tap and Lo and behold! we had water.
He filled up a 5 litre jug with water so we could use this for washing and whatnot, but found no switch for a tank. Meanwhile, the next door neighbor rang our doorbell and asked Fahim again if we needed water, they had plenty. Obviously, the servant had told the master. Thank you again, but we have sufficient for the time being.
What nice neighbors!
Fahim called Mr Perera, our landlord, to inquire if we had a tank or not. No, we don’t. Oh. Fahim and I are committed to buying a large pail for water. Pail is Fahim’s word, but the way he describes it, it sounds almost like a drum to me. About 2 feet high or so, and would likely hold, what, 40 litres of water, or somewhere thereabouts.
This is what my life has come to.
