Well, since arriving in Chimbote there has been ongoing construction throughout the city, but about two weeks ago that construction came literally to our front door. I guess construction is one of those universal constants in life; wherever you go, there's construction and the inconvenience that arises from it. They are currently working on replacing the plumbing and large pipes that are about 3-4 feet underground. So the road is basically one big exposed hole with huge piles dirt and rocks where there isn't a big hole. There are tools, pipes, wood, trash, etc. all over the place and somedays it feels like an obstacle course to enter and leave the house, but so far no serious problems. Someone told me that the construction workers are mostly just guys from around the neighborhoods who needed work, so we're hoping that the work is done well enough that they don't have to redo everything in a couple months. On the plus side, it's employing local people and providing an income, but its also not the most reliable work crew and there have already been thefts (of construction materials, not from us). There are varying estimates for how long the construction will last, but if it's anything like the rest of Chimbote I would guess it's going to be a while.
One of the consequences of the construction is that as of last Sunday we no longer have water coming into the house. For the first few days there was water coming in through an external pipe system in the street that everyone on our street would share and fill up buckets with to take back to their house. It came around 5am and 5pm. But a couple days ago it either broke or I heard maybe the gage or something was stolen, not really sure. So, there is no longer that resource. Yesterday morning I got up at 6am with Jane and collected water from some neighbors around the corner and down the street. With everyone taking turns filling up bucket, carrying them back to the house, filling up all available containers (which for us aren't actually that many), and repeating this process we spent about an hour filling up 4 buckets of water. We've set up a tentative schedule of collecting water, but we never know for sure if it will come or where it will come from. Today there was a water truck that came by around 10am so we were able to refill our water supply for the day since last night we didn't get any. It's been a really good practice in rationing scarce resources and seeing how much we can do with little water. Although cleanliness is pretty impossible to keep up given our enviornment surrounded by dust and dirt and now little water. We're doing the best we can for now and I think everyone's keeping a really positive attitude. This is part of life here and all of our neighbors are in the same spot, so we share and struggle together. Whenever you don't have something you are so used to, it definitely makes you appreciate it more and understand the struggle of those who daily go without. At least we don't have to walk a mile or more to a local stream or river to collect our daily water. And this probably won't last forever. There are estimates on anywhere from 2-4 weeks before we have running water again. I'm guessing it won't be before the new year. So, I'm grateful for each moment with or without water and what I learn and appreciate from that moment.
Today as you wash your hands, flush the toilet, take a shower, drink from the faucet (which is something we can never do, even when we have running water), run your dishwasher or washing machine, give thanks but also try to conserve your resources, even if for you they seem limitless. For most people there is a very real daily limit.
peace and love
p.s. On a completely different note: we decorated the house for Christmas! It was a lot of fun and puts us all a little more in the spirit of the holidays, which for me has been hard in sunny, dusty, 70 degree weather. Marcelle took pictures and there's a link on her blog to her photo site. She also might have a couple pictures of contstruction too... so you can check those out. I have a link to her blog under websites on the left-hand side of my blog.