No running water

I haven't had running water since Sunday. This isn't completely unusual, but usually it doesn't go out for consecutive days in a row. One of the preschool teachers stopped over with her daughter, for English homework help, and she wanted to make sure I had enough water for bathing and such, which leads me to think that we won't have water for awhile.

The rainy season hasn't been as rainy as the rice farmers want this year. It's been especially dry, which means the farmers haven't been able to plant rice. Over 90% of my community relies on rice for their annual income so this is a huge problem. Many of the fields are still dried up, where as a year ago at this time, the fields were all green with growing rice.

Community announcements happen in the mornings and evenings as a man in a truck drives around with a loudspeaker since there is no radio or newspaper. I usually can't understand it, but yesterday I did catch that the water is out, but it will run for certain hours each day in various parts of the village. This morning a dribble was coming out of the faucet so I ran around filling all sorts of containers with water so that I can still bathe, flush the squat toilet, and at least rinse off my dirty dishes. Luckily I washed 2 "loads" of long overdue laundry this past weekend so I'm okay on the laundry front for awhile.

It struck me as really unique and special that everyone is working together and sucking it up for the sake of the village and the rice crop. Sure, it's inconvenient and at times annoying to have no running water, but if it means that the farmers can plant the rice, it's worth it in the long run.