Or something like that.
Got home from a long day at the dentist and equally long bus ride home to discover there was no water service to the house. Good news-I had a few bottles in the 'frige/bad news-it's not enough for a shower. So I went out the next morning and stood in the rain with a bar of soap, washing off as best I could and using the bucket under the down spout chain to rinse with, Needs must and all that.
Back in San Juan, I used the phone at the dentists office to call Bev, she directed me to a list of muy importante peoples phone numbers, one of them being the contractor who built her house. Fortunately he spoke english somewhat and promised to come out in a day or so and find what was wrong. A day or so without water wasn't really appealing for me to go without, even though I began carting gallons of water up the ridge every night-it's a long walk carrying a gallon of water in a plastic bag.
Today being saturday, I decided to go into work mode and look for the broken line. Carlos, the builder, said the meter was on the street by the kids bus stop and the water line went cross wise thru the field of coffee plants. On top of the dirt. It was a long rubber like hose. It appears that things like buried water lines aren't necessary here. I walked down to the water meter, roll of duct tape, several towels hose clamps I found at the ferretaria and a couple of pieces of hose to try and do a sort of a fix. After all, I worked for Ma Bell for 35 years and can repair a buried drop line-and I can fix my sump pump output hose too so I ought to be able to fix whatever is wrong-at least temporarily.
Walked up and down, found the hose then lost it in the brush. Found it again and lost it again, all the time expecting to find a big puddle of water..a hose break ought to be obvious. After 5 hours of tronping thru the coffee fields, I gave up and decided this was another opportunity to gain patience. Costa Rica is full of those opportunities for norteamericanos.
A few days later I came home, expecting to take another spit bath, to find a note saying Agua OK. OK Great! And it was. I had a very long and very appreciated shower, I'm sure it will be appreciated by everyone on the bus also!
Carlos came by later to say he thought the coffee pickers had broken the line to obtain drinking water. It seems it's up to them to supply their own water for 12 hours of picking in the hot sun every day-the come with plastic bottles and look for a place to fill them up. I guess if there is no obvious place, the do whats necessary. I get that. Bev was pretty adamant about my not allowing the coffee pickers to get water from her hose, but I think offering to let them do that is a better alternative to having 5 days of no water to the house and her paying to water the coffee plants 24/7.
I ended up getting buckets of water from a neighbors hose line-he's gone for a while. Seemed the best alternative for washing and cleaning water. I did get a bit tired ot taking showers when it was raining in my bathing suit, I have to admit.
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