Making do

 We are away from home.

We are in an interesting place, someplace very different from our ordinary world. We have our regular market ladies who sell us fruit and vegetables. We know how to reject certain green peppers that are a little soft for better ones without being obnoxious ex-pats. We know that pedestrians have no rights and therefore we are adept at leaping open ditches to get out of the way of speeding taxis. We can elbow our way onto the most crowded tro-tro, completely ignoring the people trying to get off – just like the locals do. We rip the corner of plastic bags of filtered water with our teeth (though we don’t slug the whole thing down in one gulp like most!). We are settling in here.  

But we are away from home.

And we have to be creative to get some of the comforts of home. Here are a few ways we make do:

Bathroom WMS

• First and most important, we have what we call a Water Management System. Our water either runs entirely out, or slows to something that doesn’t even justify the word “trickle.” When we have good water flow, we get a little hot water in the tub (yay!), but most of the time, no hot water. We are pretty used to cold showers. When the water is completely gone, we dip out of two big garbage cans that we have filled in more liquid times – one is in the bathroom, and one is in the kitchen. Then we have a medium-size bucket in the bathroom that we keep filled as well – we can use it for “bucket showers,” and also to flush the toilet. (We also save dish rinse water in a little bucket to use for flushing.)

 There is a basin too that we use for the bucket showers, and we also have a little empty yogurt container that we use to wash hands at the sink when the water is gone.

In the kitchen, the WMS is also very plastic intensive. There is the big garbage can, then a smaller pail to haul the water to the sink for dishes, then an electric kettle for boiling water, and then several jugs and pitchers that we fill with boiled water for brushing teeth, rinsing vegetables, etc. And then there is a huge jug of filtered water that we buy for drinking, and Bill fills two glass pitchers of it so we can keep one in the fridge and use it to fill our water bottles that we carry, and the other so he doesn’t have to heft the big jug so often. Every other week or so, we return the empty jug to the store and get a full one. There is also another basin that we keep filled for rinsing dishes.

Closet door holder - the meat was good!

We have enough water in the various containers for an outage of about two days, maybe a little more.  Only once have we had to call someone to come fill the big water tanks on the roof of our compound. When the water comes back – well, let’s just say it is cause for celebration to hear that gurgle coming through the line!

•  Our closet doors won’t stay shut, so we use skewers from the ubiquitous “meat on a stick” snacks to hold the handles together.

Knitting headlamp could be a new invention

• At night, sometimes we watch TV shows or movies on the computer (thank you, Meg and Sarah for the Castle referral and CDs respectively). I like to knit while watching, but the only lights we have are big fluorescent ones, and you have to turn those off to see the screen. So I knit while wearing a camping headlamp. Not glamorous, and a few missed stitches, but it mainly works.

• We are our own barbers! In the hot climate, our hair grows fast. Twice now we have given each other haircuts. It’s a little scary, since our relationship is at stake, but so far so good. We use my knitting scissors, which are really kindergarten craft scissors, and Bill’s beard trimmer. The hotter it gets (and the less water we have), the shorter our hair gets! (Last week I used the scissors to prune the bush in the courtyard that encroaches on the clothes line. Those scissors are great!) Yes, we could find someone to do it, but we wouldn't like the results, and the price is certainly right in our own kitchen. 



Bill looks a little scared



The clothespins are an added touch

Toaster

•  We don’t have a toaster and don’t really want to buy one. So we use one of our camping pans that we brought to toast one slice of bread at a time over the gas stove. Works fine.

•  We use masking tape to supplement the mosquito frames that have big gaps between the frame and the windowsill. Masking tape also helped seal the gaps around the bathtub tile where the cockroach and maybe the scorpion snuck in.

•  We have someone who takes our laundry once a week (aforementioned water shortage) but there are always things we want before the laundry day since we don’t have that many clothes with us. So we wash clothes in the sink, and rinsing them is a big pain. Of all the appliances we don’t have – many – the washing machine is the one I miss most. The dish washing is not easy either – we have to heat water – but it’s easier than the clothes washing!

When we get home for the holidays we already have a plan in place: First, drink directly from the faucet; second, hot shower!; third, hot shower; fourth, hot bath; fifth, real haircut!