Did your mom eve
r tell you not to waste water? Mine did, and I really did try to listen to her, but I have to confess that growing up with city water in the northern United States this did not come naturally to me. Sure, I knew there were people living in deserts, who prayed for rain so they could have a sip of water to drink, but I was not one of those people and in the world I knew, water was a seemingly infinite resource. The idea of running out of water was as inconceivable as the idea that the sun might not rise some morning.
Well, two days ago the inconceivable happened, and I ran out of water. That's right, I turned on the faucet and nothing came out!
My water comes from the tank you see on the left. Rain water is collected from the roof and piped into the tank to be stored. When my faucets began sputtering and producing more bits of leaves than water, I went out check the water level in my tank. You can tell how high the water is by tapping on the side of the tank, because it echoes where it's empty but makes a dull thud wherever there's water. Sadly, my tank echoed all the way down to the ground. I was very surprised at this empty state of affairs, because dry season has only just begun, and we had daily downpours at the end of rainy season. When I climbed on top of the tank to investigate further, I discovered that the screen over the opening where the water comes in was entirely covered with pine needles and a healthy layer of dirt. Probably very little of those daily downpours ever actually made it into my tank!
Now, do not panic: I did take a shower this morning and I am not dying of dehydration! Thankfully, we do have an alternate water system, in which water is pumped up from a nearby creek, although that water isn't safe to drink. After cleaning the filter screen on my tank, I crawled under my house to investigate the various pipes and knobs (shown on the right) that would allow me to switch over to the creek water. There were three knobs, and no labels, and after trying various combinations of knob turning with no success, I called my neighbor, who told her friend, who called her husband, who told their son, who came over and showed me how to switch it over. Thanks to the creek, I still have a functioning shower and toilet. Thanks to my friends and neighbors, I have plenty of bottles of drinking water from other people's tanks. But now I am one of those people praying for rain!
Yes, working in the office again! How did you know?
Most days in the linguistics building we really do stop for morning tea! It's a much needed break from staring at our computer screens, a chance to hear what other people are working on, and often good for a laugh. I've noticed that morning tea conversations often turn to cultural differences . . . not surprising, I suppose, since we have had people from Australia, Canada, Colombia, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Switzerland, and the United States, all working in the same building!
