We are learning the life in the Dominican Republic is a series of problem-solving challenges. Our new motto is "If it's not one thing, it's another." We choose to have a good attitude of about the curve balls most of the time. As we look for help from our Dominican friends and our missionary friends, we get smiles and nods from them as we share our most recent adventures in learning to live here.
Tuesday we moved for the third time in the last month since we have not rented a house yet. (See another entry about this). We are house sitting for some missionaries who have returned to the states for a while. We are so thankful for this as it is a roomy three bedroom house and near our friends Grace and Maria Jose. However, we were hit with a common problem here soon after we moved in: no water!
Water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink! When we arrived at the house we had water, but no power. 6 hours later the power returned, but then we had no water. What is going on? Here's a little education for you North Americans: If your house is on city water, that means that the city gives you water one to three times per week. Many houses have cisterns to collect this water so they have running water all week. This requires a pump to then bring the water into the house or, if you are so fortunate, to pump the water up to a huge black water tank on the roof so you have water even when there is no electricity. This house has all three components. In fact it even has a small water heater, a true luxury. Yet in the midst of a deluge of rain outside, we had dry faucets.
Add to the mix that I, Becky, was foolhardy enough to try to do a load of laundry in the afternoon when it is most likely that the power would go out and it would rain. The load made it through the wash cycle but no further. I hung soapy clothes up to dry so they didn't mildew.
In the midst of the deluge, power outage and water strike, a missionary friend stopped by to see if he could help us get the internet working. Since the power outage made this impossible, he gave Rick a lesson in Dominican water supply. When the power came back on late in the evening, Rick checked on the things our friend suggested, but the problem remained a mystery so he dipped buckets of water from the cistern for the house.
The next morning Rick went to the school where this missionary works and brought back the maintence man who was happy to assist. However, he ran into a problem. The water pump is locked up to prevent theft, but we didn't have the keys. Hmmm, you see, if it's not one thing its another. We agreed that the best solution would be to break the lock and put a new one on. He returned later that day and got the water restored. YAYAYAY!
For us newbies this felt like a major crisis, but to experienced missionaries here this is just a bump in the road. For Dominicans, it's all in a day's work. We have so much to learn! Just getting everyday life accomplished takes a lot of time and energy.
No comments:
Post a Comment