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Precious water

As I stare at my filthy feet and smell a slight... scent... coming from everyone, a friend asked about the water situation here.... I'll do my best to explain!

We live in a "mzungu house" with city water piped in.

Most local Acholi live in huts and go to the local borehole to get water each day - carrying a jerry can full of water back on their heads (do you know HOW heavy that is?! At least 40 pounds!) or they might rig a bicycle or a wheelbarrow up to carry more jerry cans. This is why you have children - to fetch the water! ;-P

Boreholes do not generally dry up - a borehole is a narrow shaft drilled deep enough to access under ground water supplies. These supplies are deep (sometimes a mile deep) and generally do not have problems during a typical dry season here.

On the other hand, city water comes from a reservoir on the surface (it may come from other places too, I don't claim to be an expert on this!). My laundry dries within an hour in this dry dry heat, so you can imagine that with no rain to replenish the supply for months on end, the supply dries up.

Our house has a pretty big tank (enough to do one shower, toilet flushes, two loads of laundry, and a sink full of dishes - as I found out this week) and so as long as the water comes on from the city at some point for long enough, our tank fills up and we have water in most of the house.

Lately, the water hasn't been coming on at all... meaning, I drained the tank trying to keep the house and clothes clean last week and we're down to sponge baths, using dirty water to mop the floor, and... going to the borehole. Praise God for boreholes!

So, today we need to take a trip to Home of Love to fill our jerry cans and make those last. No more "pool days" (water play in bins) for a while. No nice hot showers for a while. And the laundry... yikes - disposable diaper days? :)

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