Drip, Drip.

You know, there is something I have always taken for granted...until now. Access to running water. I really can't think of a time in my past when we were without water. I am sure it has been shut off by the plumber a few times when something was being fixed, but I can not recall one time when I came home to my apartment in Boston turned on the faucet and nothing came out.

And, being able to drink the water from the faucet is another luxury I will not take for granted again. We have to buy big bottles of drinking water. It doesn't sound like such a big deal, but I have to use this water to wash all of our vegetables and fruit and I sometimes have to add a drop of bleach to the cleaning water to make sure all of the bacteria is gone from our food. We even have to use this water to brush our teeth sometimes when we don't trust the water from the pipes. And, I have to give Ericito flouride drops each day because our drinking water in the U.S. is fortified with flouride, but bottled water is not.

Times have changed.

We are without water on a regular, but completely random and unpredicatable basis here in Santo Domingo. I have heard a couple of explanations from my familia. For one, the water comes down from the mountains and by the time it hits us has a very weak flow, meaning that we have little or no water pressure. So, the apartment complex shuts off the pump so that our holding tank (or bomba) can fill up, which I have calculated takes somewhere between four and six hours. I have also heard that the city just randomly shuts off the water supply because there really isn't enough water to go around and this is the way they conserve it. Well, for whatever reason there might be we have had an especially scarce week with water. We were without water at some point each day and some days it was off and on all day.

Usually the maintenance guy in our apartment will call us up and tell us that they are going to turn the water off, so we have just enough time to run around and fill up buckets in the kitchen sink and in each of the bathrooms. But, last week "it" happened without warning. I was in the shower soaping up and the water pressure dropped. I looked up at the shower head to see a trickle. So, Eric had to bring me an emergency bucket of water so I could rinse off, luckily I didn't have a head full of shampoo!

Taking a shower with a bucket is really not nearly as bad as it sounds. It's a little bit of a rush when you pour the first cup of cold water over you, but it's like jumping into the pool, you just get used to it and then it's what I call "refreshing". AHHH! It takes a little finess to get your rythmn down, and to make sure you have enough water for the entire shower. You douse yourself with water, soap up and rinse off. A bucket, a cup and a bar of soap are all you need.

The worst part of no water, as you might have imagined is the toilets. We follow the golden (haha) rule of the toilet flushing. "If it's yellow let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down." What I didn't know was all you need to is a gallon or so of water to pour into the toilet to create enough pressure to flush.

As you can tell from the pictures, Little Eric doesn't really care if there is water or not. He actually loved having the bucket in the bathtub where he could submerge all of his toys. Unfortunately, though, I caught him trying to drink the water from a cup. Thank God no diarrea!

Ok...I know this might be TMI, but this blog is all about sharing our new life, right?! And, maybe it will make you appreciate that sweet sound of a toilet flushing and the water pressure of the shower! I know it makes me appreciate these things more now than ever before.

Eric LOVING the bucket-bath.

A few other pictures from the week:

Eric helping Papa build bookshelves.Watching President Obama give his inaugural speech.Playing Chess with papa. I mean, you knew this was in his future, right?

Cool sunglasses on, ready to go out with mama and Abuela.