April Showers Bring...April Showers

Back home, the saying goes, "April showers bring May flowers." In Tanzania, I think the saying goes like this, "April showers bring April showers." Of course, the rains also bring long grass to our yard, providing a perfect breeding ground for snakes and it provides us with precious drinking water, but I would be remiss in not mentioning the wonderful showers with which it provides us.
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A Quick Background
Our home in Mabibo is capable of housing running water. The water comes one night a week from the city and when needed this one night of water fills our two tanks, enough water to last us a month. The water in our top tank is what comes into our house. Normally, when we see the bottom tank is empty, we start opening up our pipes through which the city's water flows, since the city is occasionally sporadic with its water distribution. In the middle of March, we happened upon the fact that the bottom tank was empty. We began our nightly vigil waiting for water to come. A week passed, city water didn't come, our bottom tank remained empty, the top tank grew lighter. Another week passed, city water supposedly came, our bottom tank was definitely still empty, the top tank, still lighter.

We started asking our neighbors if their water was coming. First week, apparently no one got water. Second week, neighbors were getting water. Thinking it may be something the matter with our pump, we had it checked by one of the Jesuits. "Nothing wrong with the pump, just wait for the water," he explained. In the meantime, as March turned into April, the rainy season had arrived. By this time the top tank was empty and so buckets showers became the "in" thing. Our water source was no longer the city; instead, water came in the form of rain, which we caught in a single four-gallon bucket. With the rain water we faithfully refilled our small water basins, which all together hold 72 liters. Seems like a lot, but it reminds us how much water three people can use over the course of a couple of days.

We learned this past week we would no longer be receiving city water. We discovered that during the month of March as we watched water spouts sprouting up along the walk to school, water was being diverted away from its previous route. We missed the "update", and so now we fetch water from a neighbor's house.
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Bucket showers are not fun (I am sure that some of my friends who have no option but to bucket shower will stop reading here), and this being the case, I tried going as long as allowed without showering. Finally, one Saturday, while Kate and Caroline were at a friend's house, it began down pouring. I leapt into my bathing suit, soap in hand, and made way for the water rolling out of the gutter. This gave birth to my new idiom, April showers bring April showers. My sole regret is not having tried it earlier; although, it is not as simple as it sounds, since we are in school during the majority of the rain and I have yet to muster the courage to excuse myself from class to bathe.
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Rains bring water, yes. Thankfully, rainy seasons bring a lot of water. The rains keep things cooler, food grows, water tanks are filled. But I have also come to recognise that a month of rain with no sun also has its downside.

Midway through April, in the middle of our water story, I saw a few spots of mildew growing inside my hat. I didn't think much of it. It was only my hat and it was probably because it was dirty, unlike my clothes stored inside my drawers. All else was safe, I thought. Not true. I quickly discovered my clothes were damp. Actually, make that wet. Hanging them up in my room did not help and I think it may have actually made things worse. Too much rain, not enough sun. I was stuck between praying for water to fill our bucket and praying for sun to dry my clothes which were quickly being overrun by the spread of mildew. Luckily, this past Sunday, we had a slight reprieve from the rain, allowing enough time to wash away the mildew and to dry the clothes, thereby dodging a mini-disaster. Losing one pair of pants to mildew when that means halving your clothing options below the waist may constitute a mini-disaster.

Otherwise, all else is well here. I am grateful for your continued thoughts and prayers and know that you are in mine. Stay well, my friends.