A Post Actually About Agua In Nicaragua

During my time here I'm staying with a host family. It's working out really well so far. There is one problem, though, and that is that the neighboorhood I live in is really poor. This means that we don't have running water all day. This has been a bit of an adjustment since there are so many activities that I forget require water that I can't do during the evening after I come home from work. Just think of all the tasks that require water during your day, and think about condensing those activities to occur between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m. A normal day looks something like this... Just about everybody gets up in the morning (6 people including myself) before 5 a.m. and begin the mad scramble to either cook your food, take a shower, wash your dishes or wash your clothes. There is a laundry machine at my house but it is used very sparingly because of the cost of electricity. Keep in mind that only two taps will work at any given time, so if you have the water on outside while you are hand washing your clothes and the kitchen sink running, there will be no water in the shower. Since I have to be at work for 7 a.m. I need to leave the house before 6:30 a.m. and I need to make sure that I boil rice for lunch, wash a few clothes, clean myself and do my dishes from the day before all before I run down my street to try to catch a cab. And trying to accomodate everyone else. I'm not the best at multitasking to begin with, and I find it especially difficult to do when the sun has barely risen. Even since I've been here there have been some mishaps involving taps left on by accident. Someone will turn on a tap, have no water come out, and forget to shut it. Then, at 3 a.m. the water will come back and, while everyone is sleeping, flood the kitchen floor or the bathroom, or the backyard. Having grown up in a three bathroom house I never had the experience of fighting for bathroom time complicated even more by this countdown to when there will be no more water.