Day 201 Low Water

Wednesday 25 Feb 2009

After desayuno I discover there’s low water pressure after I deposit yesterday’s waste products into the WC in our master bathroom and there’s not enough water in the tank to flush it down—yes, it be brown! So I close the lid, close the bathroom door, and retreat downstairs to the office. I go back upstairs later to see if things have improved and they have not; a trickle of water out of the lavatory faucet and still no water in the tank. Just for the fun of it I try the shower valve which is on the other side of the WC and a few drops trickle from the shower head.

After my morning snack I try again and this time I’m flush with success, but the tank doesn’t refill; at least the water is clean in the bowl—whoohoo! The pressure remains low all day long; even the downstairs lavatory faucet emits a very small stream. Early in the evening Teri goes off to Club Grau to swim and I tell her to take soap so she can bathe there rather than just showering as she usually does because we don’t have water pressure at the house. I decide to not do any significant sweat-producing exercise since I’m unlikely to be able to take a shower afterward.

I’ve lived in Piura for seven months now so I know there is no realistic way of finding out why we have low water pressure or when we can expect normal water pressure—if ever. I hope this kind of experience will make me more tolerant of infra-structure problems back in the good old USA, but I don’t think it will. We adapt too well to our environment and our expectation and tolerance of novel events within that environment changes with experience.

We have no choice here; we’ll let the yellow—mellow.