Lets talk about the water...

Photos: two women with an informal business selling snacks in my neighborhood and then a photo after a soccer game that was Peruanos vs. Americanos (we actually tied believe it or not)

First off I want to say that I am very thankful for what I have here in Peru. That being said, I think it would be beneficial\interesting to write a couple of entries about daily life in the Peace Corps instead of stories of things I´ve done. Todays´s topic: WATER

We have running water in my house. BUT, of course I can´t drink it. The Peruvians sometimes drink it but not me. I have 3 options; buy it, boil it or every day fill up my Nalgene bottles from the 5 gallon bottles at the training center. For now, I´ll take option 3 - its the easiest. When I go to my site I´ll probably have to boil it.

Next off, we have a toliet at my house. It even has a toliet seat which is very rare. Most trainees have toliets, some have latrines but only a couple of us actually have toliet seats. They don´t even have them at restraunts or our training center. Most public places, if they have bathrooms, they don´t provide toliet paper, so if you want it, you have to bring it your self. The same thing goes for soap. If you are fortunate enough to have PH (t.p. in spanish) don´t even think about flushing it. Oh no! That´s what the trash cans are for.

Have I grossed you out yet? Let move to the shower. So I have one with an actual shower head and curtain. A lot of trainees have to take bucket showers (you fill the bucket with water lather up then and pour the bucket over your head). One guy was telling me the other day that he has a shower but no curtain or door to the bathroom. He said ¨yeah, its kind of wear that my family can see me bathe¨. Luckily I don´t have to deal with that. But what I do have to deal with is...

COLD WATER! There is no such thing as warm water in my house. You know what its like when your taking a nice hot and steamy shower then all of a sudden it goes freezing cold? Its pretty painful right? Your first instinct is to get as far away from the water as possible until it gets hot again right? Yeah, well I don´t have that option here. Solamente AGUA FRIA! (only cold water). There´s nothing quite like waking up in the morning all warm and cozy in your bed only to step into the shower and BOOM get hit with really cold water. As a result of this I´ve decided to step up and do my part in saving the environment. I´m going to reduce the amount of water I use by 50-70%. I´m going to stop showering. That might sound gross, espeically since I sweat so much when I work out. OK, so I´ll try to take one at least every three days but no promises.

One last thing about the water... it shuts off every night at 10pm. That means from 10 o´clock until the morning, there is no tooth brushing, face washing, or toliet flushing. Unless of course, you get creative......