H 2 (the izz) O!

8-27-09

So, last night I went to a water meeting. Even though we have water only three times a day, we don’t have a water commission but there is one guy who was at one time or another voted president of the water issue. He is the one who gathers all of the money from everyone and pays for everyone all at once. We have a big tank for about 250 or 300 houses. He is also in charge of turning it on—roughly at 6am, siesta time, and evening. Those are the times to fill your barrels with water so you can use water throughout the day. The past few days, however, it has not been turned on at all because about 70 families did not pay. The plan had been that families that don’t pay would have their individual water cut off—makes sense—but I was told that this is impossible and so every now and then they turn off the water for everyone for some time (last year it was for more than a month at one point!), they fundraise to get enough money to pay the bill, it goes back on, people don´t pay and the cycle continues. I am a pretty optimistic person but this has been this way for the past 17 years!!! The only thing that was decided at the meeting last night was that they would hook up water for the school for obvious hygene/health purposes. So I guess I´ll just see everybody at the school to fill up buckets instead of at the water tank? Good talk, guys.