*Just kidding. It’s a pretty big problem.
My Saturday morning routine: wake up early because my body is always on the school schedule, make a large cup of coffee, throw my dirty, sweaty week’s worth of clothes in the washer, and wait to hang it up, enjoying the peace and quiet before my roommates and the rest of Cofradia wakes up.
My Saturday morning routine when there’s no running water: grab a 5 gallon Agua Azul (what our drinking water comes in), head over to the town square, and fill it from the spigot there. Then I hoist the bottle back to the apartments and up two flights of stairs while Hondurans on the street look at me like I am seriously loca. Repeat 5-6 times to fill up a load. This is a humbling experience. Sometimes we have access to a pila (large tub of water) at the base of our apartments, which makes the trip shorter. Alternatively, I can pack up my laundry and walk six blocks to BECA’s house to wash my clothes, hoping that the water is on there.
Beginning in April, we Cofradia apartment-dwellers began experiencing problems with the water. The water would come and go at seemingly random times, which had only happened sparingly before, usually after it rained. After a few days, it became apparent that the problem wasn’t going anywhere soon. We started filling up buckets in the shower and conserving where we could. Many Agua Azul bottles were carried up the stairs, dishes piled up in the sink, and showers were skipped. It was a stinky situation for all of us. Some gracious parents opened up their showers to us and we rushed to do all the dishes when the water came back on.
We had a few theories as to why the water had abandoned us. The cistern was too low and couldn’t fill back up because we were using the water too quickly; the pump was broken; less water was coming into Cofradia in general, which is true. It’s a pan-Cofradia water shortage. The reason I’ve heard from parents is that people are starting to fill up pools because its summer and the people in charge of the water don’t want everyone using up all their water on that. It might seem silly, but nothing seems impossible at this point. No matter what the reason is, the fact remains: water is running low these days, and showering, doing laundry, and washing dishes now takes more time and thought.
In a fortunate and unexpected turn of events, yesterday the Honduran army filled up our cistern from a giant water tank and solved our problems for the time being. Now our water will be turned on according to a schedule: 5-7 am before we head to school and 4-10pm when we’re home, which is sounds perfect. Just knowing that the water is going to come back on is a huge relief when you come home covered in sweat, dust, kids’ sneezes, and general grime. It also makes you appreciate just how much water you’re using and the people who go through the struggle to get water every day, in and out of Honduras.
