Even here in Botswana, water was something that we mostly took for granted - until recently. When we moved into this house in August, the landlord agreed to provide water by means of a "jojo" tank. He was responsible to haul water and keep the tank from running dry. Well, we had a couple of close calls, but somehow there was always just enough to keep us going. The promise of "city water" was fulfilled in early January, several months later than promised, but very welcome, none the less - that is until the water supply became very erratic. In the last month, we have had water on during the day about 1/2 of the time, but its been about ten days since that happened. Now, usually, the water will go out in the morning and come back in the evening, but on Sunday the water went out altogether and did not come back on at all (thanks to an electrical storm, power outage, and water supply issue). So, we have been going out to the jojo tank and filling 5 liter jugs to provide for our bathing, washing and flushing needs. The jojo, however, is almost empty, and since the plumber cut the pipe from the jojo and promised to come back and reconnect it a month ago, it had not been refilled whenever the water was on. After bathing in 3-5 liters of water for each of the last 3 days, you can imagine my delight to hear the water runing this morning - even though it was 5:30 am. I did what any sensible person would do, I jumped up, had a shower, ran a tub for Cheryl, and stored water for flushing. The good news is that the plumber is actually coming back today to reconnect the jojo tank, and we will be able to use that as back-up water supply after this. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that the internet was down for two days, and the power was also out for about 12 hrs? The things we take for granted - well not as much any more!) - Keith
