Agua Agua Agua

Water, H2O, the most basic element a human needs to survive. In the United States I never think twice about water. I have full currents flowing through all bathroom and kitchen sinks. When I turn the knob of my shower on, water, WARM water, comes bursting out at high speeds. As for right now, I live in Honduras and this could not be more opposite of the case.

I turn on the faucet in my sink, in my bathroom, and in my shower, and all I hear is absolute silence. Nothing is coming out of my sink, not even a drop of water.

We have hit the dry season here in Honduras, where thunderstorms come few and far between. This means that the water needs to be regulated, which means water in my sink is seen few and far between. I imagine an evil man sitting in a small room next to a switch board that says “water- on” on one side and “water-off” on the other side. I picture him snickering to himself as he flips the switch to “water-off” for days on end. “Ha-HA-ha… good luck surviving on THAT, American girls!!” I can almost hear it coming out of his mouth.

This would be my dream come true as a little girl. I HATED taking baths, and even WORSE, showers!! They were terrifying. Why would I want to get clean when the minute I hopped out of the tub I would go back to digging in mud holes and catching wild animals?? I was such a boy when I was little; ask any of my childhood girlfriends. They were constantly telling me how I smelled like a fish (embarrassing) and how I needed better manners. At the time I really didn’t care—I’d rather be one of the boys! My mom had to FORCE me to take a bath, literally holding me down in the tub. What in the world ever happened?? I can say I now don’t enjoy smelling like a fish and I prize my showers. I especially prize them in Honduras since they have been almost non-existent these past few weeks.

On Sunday we were blessed enough to have water flowing strong through our house. We quickly washed our dishes and took long, cool showers. At 7:40PM Sunday evening the water stopped coming through the pipes, we began a dry spell.

Monday we started a new school week. It has been a pretty normal school week with only one slight change…it is BOILING hot. Every day on the walk to school the sweat begins. By the time I arrive to school my entire shirt is soaked with sweat, sometimes it’s even dripping down my face. One day a Honduran teacher looked at me with wide eyes and said, “Miss!! Your FACE!!” I know. I sweat. A. LOT. It’s rather disgusting.

From there the sweat does not end. As the day goes on the temperature keeps on rising. By the afternoon I’m completely drained. My students are asking to drink water every 20 minutes..the heat takes it out of everyone. It’s difficult to concentrate on teaching when you can feel sweat rolling down your back. I’ve started wearing an undershirt to hold in all of my sweat so my uniform isn’t completely soaked every day. I dream about having a water fight with my students—that would go over great with administration I’m sure!

Gayle and I have tried to start running again, but every day we are too hot and too tired from sweating all day long. It almost feels as if we had been running all day long from the amount of sweat we accumulate by the end of the day. By the time we walk home we smell horrible. The only thing I have on my mind is taking an ice cold shower.

On Monday afternoon we walked home in the heat, only to find our pipes bone-dry…no water for us! We waited patiently for the water to come on, but it never did. We sat at our kitchen table exasperated…we were STILL sweating while grading papers..and this is what we were going to have to go to bed in! Even while I had a fan directly on me the entire night with no covers over my body, I never cooled down. I woke up feeling even hotter than the night before.

Tuesday: repeat of Monday. Only this time, when we arrived home from school we smelled twice as bad as Monday, and we were even hotter than Monday. Our clothes were drenched with sweat again, and we  ran to our sink to see if we had water. NOPE. None. Zilch. Nada.

At this point, we not only smelled and felt horrid, our kitchen was also starting to smell from the pile of dirty dishes accumulating next to our dry sink. We were running out of things to eat off of. Gayle and I felt absolutely disgusting. There was no way we could go to bed without a shower..the water HAD to come on. But no, it didn’t. 8:00 hit and we were exhausted from the heat so we headed to bed. Gayle and I both had trouble sleeping because our bodies were burning, radiating heat. I woke up several times in the night in a sweat. My whole body was sticky, and I’m not even going to mention what I LOOKED like.

Wednesday Gayle and I headed to school trying not to complain, but we were at our wits end..is it too much to ask for a simple shower?? It can even be cold! As we walked to school with Jake, Jacob, Heather, Ana, and Eleanor they all shared how they took nice cool showers the night before..it’s the only way they can cool their bodies down. We shot them a look of disbelief. “YOU ALL HAD WATER LAST NIGHT?!” They all looked at us and said…”Yeah, our water comes on every afternoon and stays on until the morning…we have water every day.”  ………………………………… Seriously. They were shocked to learn we hadn’t had water since Sunday evening. I don’t know why our house was so blessed to be skipped with flowing water, we must be extra special! I guess our patience needs to be tested more. We both agreed that if Wednesday after school we STILL didn’t have water, we were going to the girls’ house to take showers.

Walking into our house Wednesday afternoon we ran to our kitchen sink..and there was the most beautiful sight. Water was flowing over our dirty dishes filled sink. We were ecstatic!! We both quickly took showers and washed all the dishes. I had never felt so amazing; I also couldn’t believe how much a shower cooled down my body heat. Just an hour after we were cleaned up, the water turned off again and hasn’t been on since. I’m not sure when the next time will be when I see water flowing again in my house. It could be today, it could be three days from now… you never know. All I DO know is that I have never appreciated having water like I do now. Another thing I can chalk up on my list of how I’ve been privileged my entire life.