The nearest water source for the rectory in which I am staying is 40 kilometers (25 miles) away. Water is directed to communities at particular times. You cannot assume that you turn on a faucet and water will flow. In fact, it is far more common to turn on the faucet and not to have water.

Tomorrow will mark two weeks in which I have been residing in the Parish rectory in Wanging’ombe. To date, I have taken one regular shower (turn on the shower and the water comes out the nozzle; I should have appreciated that moment more when it happened!).

On two days, I have simply taken a sponge bath at the sink using water that I have heated mixed with room temperature water in a large pail.

All of the other days, I have taken a “bucket shower,” which requires me to heat two pitchers of water (so you have to have electricity; this morning we did not have electricity or water, so sponge bath it was). The water for the “bucket showers” is acquired from a large water barrel in my bathroom (photo above). On the occasions that we do have water, you have to make sure to refill your water barrel. The bucket shower takes time due to the heating of the two water pitchers, but it is surely appreciated in contrast to the sponge bath at the sink. The availability of water is very intermittent, so having the water “on” when you want to take a shower in the morning is a rare occurrence. 

When brushing my teeth, I have to use bottled water. The water here has bacterias that are harmful to all. If you recall in a previous post, all water needs to be boiled before consumption, or one drinks bottled water (if you can afford bottled water).

In the two weeks that I have been here, there were two days straight in which we had electricity. On all of the other days, we have experienced power outages for a significant portion of the day.  What is most common is to have electricity at the very start of the day, and then the power goes out around 8 or 9 a.m. Power is usually out for the majority of the day; power is often restored around 7:30 or 8 p.m. On two evenings, we have lacked power at bedtime, so I have used the flashlight on my phone to prepare for bed.

The administrative offices for INUKA have a generator (shown), so the Administrative staff is usually able to advance their work during the day. At some point each day, I take advantage of the power in the office to re-charge my phone and use the Wi-Fi to send my updates. The balance of the INUKA facilities do not have a generator, so the electricity outages are a real issue here that needs to be resolved, especially with the expansion of medical equipment that is part of the new outpatient building.