Water Solutions

Savannah has noticed I like to talk about the rain. If it rained yesterday, I like to talk about it. If it’s raining now, I like to mention it! If it hasn’t rained in a week, I also notice that! Though perhaps I talk a bit too much about the weather, it is for good reason. Those who receive our monthly newsletters may recall we have run out of water at our house several times in the past.

You see we have had a rainwater collection system. We have a cistern below the ground that holds about 2,000 gallons of water. Then we have a water container up above that holds more than 500 gallons. All of the water in our house is fed by this water container. When it is running out we pump water from the cistern up to the container. For most of the year I don’t have to worry about having enough water. During the heart of the rainy season (December-February) we’re lucky to string together 2-3 days without rain; therefore, we always have plenty of water at our house. For the rest of the rainy season (October-November & March-June) it rains enough to maintain. However, during the dry season (July-September), it’s not uncommon to go a full 30 days or more with no rain. Then when it does rain it might last 10-15 minutes – not enough to fill up our cistern! Those 2,500 gallons last us 2-3 weeks at most.

In August and September of years past we had to really try our best to use our water sparingly. When doing laundry, we would catch the water from the rinse cycle and feed it back into the washer for the wash cycle of the next load. We would shower as quickly as possible (sometimes even turning the shower off while soaping up). As far as toilets go – we’ll just say we only flushed when it was olfactorily necessary! However, the name of this post is water solutions, not water problems! One big difference between this year and years past is that we now have city water! Praise God, this is a huge “monkey off our back!”

One other water solution concerns the road to the nearest town. About twelve years ago the road was paved and it apparently took only 30 minutes to get to this nearby town. This “pavement” is colloquially referred to as mere “black paint” – asphalt so thin it didn’t last 3 years. As heavy trucks filled with food, gas, or other supplies traversed this road, more and more holes were put into the road. In the rainy season these holes become deep ruts. In the dry season machines go out to fill the holes and ruts, but they never actually fix or patch the holes. Therefore, by the time we got here 3.5 years ago, the road was probably 95% dirt and 5% pavement. During the dry season, this is not a problem. It’s a bit bumpy, but at least we can make it no problem. However, in the rainy season we have had some problems. One time I did get stuck. Praise God my teammate happened to be on the road and passed by only 15 minutes later. He was able to pull me out! The problem is not so much that there is deep “mud,” the ground here is primarily clay. That clay gets slick in a hurry! When I got stuck that time, it wasn’t that I was bogged down in mud – I just found myself fighting an incline on that slick clay.

This past rainy season was especially rainy which means the road was especially nasty. Everyone here commented on how often it rained, how hard it rained, and how late into the year it kept raining. For six months I did not make one trip to the nearby town. I wasn’t alone in this – almost no one made the trip! We have to go to this nearby town from time to time to buy diesel. They also have groceries there that we do not have here. Those were some fairly difficult months for us! They were even more difficult for the many people who work or study in the nearby town. Since nobody could go by road, they were having to go by water – which takes longer and is more expensive. Again, the name of the post is solutions not problems. Praise God, a company has come with tons of rocks and sand, excavators and graders, and workers who have repaved the road! This is a huge blessing for us personally, and even more so for the people who live in this area.