Water, water everywhere…

The rains have started in Flores. December is quite late for this – everyone blames it on global warming. Here in Ruteng late rains don’t make a lot of difference as the cool mountain climate means that the region is constantly green. In more arid areas though (where there is a ‘hungry’ season and a ‘rainy’ season) I imagine the late rains made life hard. So far, the ‘rains’ haven’t been too bad… it’s bright and sunny in the morning & then at around lunch time it clouds over & rains quite heavily for a few hours. My complaint though (sorry this is turning out to be such a moany blog!) is that despite this abundance of water, I still do not have running water at home!

Everyone gives a different explanation for this: the government ration the water; there’s a leaky pipe etc. And to confound my problems the mandi (my main vessel for storing water) leaks. It wasn’t too bad when I was on my own – I’d almost got into a routine of bucket filling – but now Zoe is here too, and to be honest it is a struggle to make the water go round. You don't really realise how much water you need, or the varitey of tasks you use it for, until you don't have it 'on tap'!

I’m sure we’ll fix the situation soon – or at least work out a routine to better conserve the water we do have – it’s just a bit frustrating so live in an area with monsoon style rain but to have to conserve water as though we were living in a desert!


the empty mandi

rainy afternoon at home