Water . . . I Need Water . . .

Earlier this weekend, we spent 24 hours without water at the Page house, and we've all agreed that we're basically a bunch of wimps (we'll explain why below).

So, the story begins around Wednesday when we noticed a pipe leaking into the road in front of our house, and guess what?  Yep, it was the water line leading to our house.  The road had eroded so much that the pipe was exposed to the cars, trucks, bikes, motorcycles, tuk-tuk's, people, cows, goats, etc. that walk in front of our house.  A repairman was sent out on Thursday (we think) to repair the leak, which he did quite capably by disconnecting the pipe and shoving a stick and plastic bags into the offending, leaking end of the pipe.  In doing so, he cut off our water supply . . . after a day or so of us draining our reserve water tanks, we found ourselves without any water on Friday afternoon.

After a few terse conversations with the local water company, a team showed up mid-morning on Saturday to begin the repair job.

Lyla is ready to inspect the work team sent to fix the leak.

The site of the crime . . . in many instances Kenyan plumbers use plastic bags to reinforce plumbing connections.

The team starts digging up the offending water line.

The team worked in shifts (not unlike a DOT work crew in the US); one person worked and three people watched.

Seth and Lyla came out to inspect the stick and plastic bags that were used to plug the leaky pipe.

The team works to unearth the pipe's connection to the main water line.

We were all "climbing the walls" while we waited for our water to be restored.

The team made a small fire on the roadway (he's exhaling, not inhaling) . . .

. . . in order to heat a plastic connecting pipe . . . 

. . . so that the plastic pipe could expand to fit around the metal pipe.

The team works to connect the new pipe to the old, rusty pipe.  We're thankful for a good sand filter for our drinking water!

After the job was completed, Tammy made a lunch of rich, chicken, and ugali bread (corn bread) for our plumbing team.  So, why are we wimps?  After suffering without water for 24 hours, it occurred to us that probably none of the five men that worked to reconnect our water have indoor plumbing or electricity in their homes. What we complain about for 24 hours is a daily reality for probably 80% of Kenyans.

We finished our day with our water fixed only to experience our second outage of the day . . . this time our daily power outage (which only took about 4 hours).  We probably handled this outage with a little more poise and grace.