Water

Water has been a little scarce in parts of Kenya lately. Northern Kenya has been experiencing a pretty severe drought which unfortunately, is an almost annual occurrence there. Here in Nairobi, the city has been rationing water, just in case they need more. From what I have read there isn't a crisis yet, but there could be one soon.

So, from time to time, they turn off our water. On our compound, the longest we have gone is four days with no water coming in to our houses. Imagine turning on the faucet in your kitchen and nothing. We have a 200 gallon water tank in our attic and a 1000 gallon tank in the yard for back-up, but when the water is off we try to be extra careful. The rule here is "if it's brown flush it down; if it's yellow let it mellow."

The water we get in our faucet isn't safe to drink so we have to filter it. Sometimes it comes out smelling strongly of bleach, sometimes it is full of fine sand, sometimes quite dirty. When we wash our dishes, we then rinse them in bleach water to kill everything off. Our fresh fruit and vegetables get soaked in bleach water as well.

One of the problems is the the road workers. When they are thirsty, they dig up a water main near them, crack the pipe and fill their bottles. Then we have a bubbling hole in the road for a few weeks until someone patches it (usually with a strip of rubber - like a bicycle inner tube) and sometimes they even fill the hole back in after they fix the pipe.

It took us all a little while to get used to brushing our teeth with bottled water and not rinsing our toothbrushes in the faucet. We constantly have to remind the kids not to put bath water into their mouths (which is not a great habit anywhere.) And I think most of you would be surprised at how much water gets into your mouth when you shower.

We are thankful we have the water though, and a way to purify it. Most don't, and there is a lot of sickness that could be avoided as a result. When the water is on we try to remember to fill our bottles so we are prepared when the water is off. Next time you get a drink or flush a toilet (only your dog should associate these two things), remember to be thankful for some of the simple things you might take for granted.