I knew it was coming. I knew I would have to deal with it again. I really wanted to be prepared. I really wanted to be thankful and rejoice and skip around with daisies singing, “la-la-laaaa”. But, alas, those wants did not come about.
I am talking about electricity and water. They cut out power here, for whatever reason, no one really knows. My area always seems to go out more often. I am not saying that to whine louder, but at night, I can see, my area has no light but other areas have lights. They say in our area there are a lot of illegal connections and it causes the transformer to blow and workers have to come out and replace it. How long does it take to replace? This week I was 42 hours without power. Then the next day I was off 8. The other day 5 hours. Who knows.
It was a tough week. When you do not sleep well at night, it is hard to function well in the day. And the heat, it just pulls even more out of you. I try to keep a good attitude. I try to remember that eventually the light will come back. I try to go thru all the things I am thankful for. I try praying. I try…but sometimes, frustration still flows, thoughts of why am I here pop up, and just plain ol’ crankiness rolls through.
We are in the hot season and rains should be coming by May. Everything is brown and dry. Water is short and so the city shuts off water to areas of town and then opens different areas for a day. I can always tell when the city opens our area because women are out with their big bowls to go and fetch it. I have two tanks to store water. When the top one, which is connected to my house is empty, as in, no water comes out of our taps, I have a pump which electrically pumps water from the bottom one to the top. So, this past Sunday, the top one was empty and I had just enough in the bottom one and I pumped up to fill it. THEN…Monday evening came. I had no water flowing out of my taps!! I did not use a whole tank in one day!? It seemed one of my toilets was leaking and it took. the. whole. tank. of. water. Brutal. I had just a little left in my bottom tank so Darlena and I got a few buckets and filled them so we could take bucket showers before sleeping and have some to wash dishes the next day.
Water rarely comes during the week. They seem to open the taps on Saturdays or Sundays. Again, I do not know why, no reason. But I prayed on Monday night. I prayed that water would come and fill my tank. I sent a couple texts out to people to pray.
Tuesday morning, I went and i looked at the road and saw women rushing with their buckets…I thought, “really??!!!” and checked my tank and it was half full!! Yippee!! (Insert the daisies and singing!) Real Miracle. So thankful!
There are so many good things about being here. There are so many good things about following the Lord. There are so many good things that I forget to mention—like, at least I the power did not go off at the same time my water ran out :)
I am not writing so you feel bad for me. I am writing to keep you updated on life here and that it is not all Bible studies and Dagbani learning. Some days, it is just surviving!
Buckets next to the sink for dish washing.