So what's a girl to do...

...with no water and electricity?

Day 1: It’s ok, I take a bath and start to sweat immediately after so it’s really a futile effort to bath everyday anyway. I’ll just read by candlelight when the sun goes down and sleep with the windows open.

Day 2: Fine, just wet the rag with what water you have and do a quick wipe down. Extra deodorant. Baby powder in the hair and pull it up in a “strategically” messy bun. No one will know. The electricity is out still and again no fan tonight. The flies seem to be more attracted to me these days and no amount of bug spray deters these damn mosquitoes.

Day 3: Should I use this water to wash my dishes, clean the carrot, wash my face, or brush my teeth because I really can’t do it all. The baby powder is clumping in the hair, thank god for headscarves! Lavender oil is quite a powerful mask to the residing odor. I fear people will start to notice if I get too close. Then I think about how many awful scents my nose has tolerated on several bus rides and realize it’s nothing new!

Day 4: My landlord realizes that someone turned off the tap at the meter for the entire compound. We have an idea that it was the two little boys that live next door and if I knew anything about how the water system operates here with 5 different houses on the compound and where it sources from, I would have checked into that. What I assumed to be an issue of water shortage was actually a matter of child’s play. It’s still frustrating!

The electricity remains to be an issue because there is a problem with wiring between my house and my neighbor’s. Our houses operate as a duplex and whatever kind of electrical system we have is not sufficient for the two of us. My landlord tells me there is only one electrical company that services all of Botswana and they have been notified of our issue, with promises to visit tomorrow…always tomorrow. Apparently next week is last month’s tomorrow…and that’s wishful thinking. The temporary fix we have by a local electrician only works some of the time, so again we go for the majority of the day without it if we turn on one too many appliances. I have stopped bothering with putting ice trays in the freezer. The only things in my house operating on electricity are my fridge, a fan, a lamp, a teakettle, and the hot water geyser. The only thing that needs to remain on is the fridge. The geyser is really unnecessary these days with the heat, so that remains off. Everything else is as needed.

I used to think how great washing machines and dishwashers were, really seeing them as items of luxury. Now they just seem like a larger dependency on electricity and water. Hell, these days I just marvel at the mere access to running water and reliable electricity. After three days without, I have never realized how much I took those things for granted. I have other friends here who have gone longer without one or the either, but for me it’s the unpredictability of it all. If it’s going to be so unreliable and sporadic, I would almost rather learn to live without it. At least there’s consistency in that and I could learn to build my day to day around providing for myself in those conditions. It’s like most amenities here: when I started this Peace Corps adventure I didn’t even know if I would have electricity at all. When you are exposed the possibility of it, or seeing how readily available it is, you wonder how to go back to those original resignations. So my last few days have been trying in such strange ways. Not having furniture is really starting to wear on my morale and the issues with water and electricity, particularly in this blazing heat, is just icing on the cake.

In another light...It’s not even a matter of panic, just an aspect of my life that I’ve never even been concerned with or even taken the time to consider. It’s not life and death. People live here everyday without either for years and years. Maybe they have never even known to have running water in their home. People’s pains and trials are all relative; one person’s struggle is another’s reprieve. For me, it’s all about transitioning and continuing to re-evaluate what’s important to me, for my life here and this experience in general. I realize that this inconsistent water and electricity will become normal in time and my troubles will go on to something new. The things that occupy my mind and embody my worries are really so different than they were 10 months ago. This is a good thing. It’s a good change, but there’s always a bit of mental resistance and opposition to these changes, but then you just learn to accept it and adapt. Cue serenity prayer.

For now, I’ll enjoy the returned water and sit in front of the fan while I can, reading Dwell magazine and pretending I live in one of those houses where functionality isn’t even a pertinent question; they are way past that in the league of aesthetics. You see the ad for the Koehler faucet and KNOW that it disperses water whenever you please, and in 15 different ways to boot.

We’ll mark this one in the book for “added perspective”. Cheers and goodnight.