When we went to Ghana in 2007, I had no appreciation for a cold shower. But after being in 90 degree heat for a while, I have found that I really don’t care what the temperature of the water is. A “cold” shower (with water being something around 75 or 80 maybe?) is really not so bad after all. I don’t even mind that it’s just a trickle of water. Saves water that way. Stephanie, on the other hand, has been needing to bring some hot water upstairs to supplement the meager trickle of cold. Timothy also prefers the water to be a little warmer.
When you’re paying for every 1,000 gallons of water being trucked in, you learn to be a lot more frugal with water than you were used to back home. You don’t leave the faucet running while you apply soap to your hands, or when brushing your teeth. You don’t even flush the toilet after every time you use it. I know, I know, that’s completely beyond the realm of most of your understanding. But you have never lived in a place like this.
For one thing, you can’t take a bath in the water here. There are parasites living in the water, and if you soak in the water, you run the risk of getting some kind of bad creature inside of you. More importantly, you can’t drink water that comes out of the faucet. You will get sick if you do.
There are two kinds of water here. Board water, and water that’s safe to drink. Generally speaking, the only water that’s safe to drink is the water that you have sterilized yourself. The most convenient method is using these large 10 liter contraptions made by a company called Katadyn. You simply pour the water into the top 10 liter container, and then slowly, over the course of the day, the water runs through the filtration system collecting into the bottom 10 liter container. I think these run somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 or $500, including the filters. We only had to buy the filters as the McLean’s had an extra base unit here for us already. But the filters alone were something like $60 a piece, and you need three of them. We also brought a few other purifying methods, a “steri-pen,” some tablets, and a little water bottle (I think this is a Katadyn contraption as well). We’ve used the steri-pen some, although we will probably use the large filtration system for most of our clean water needs.
Then there’s “board water.” I don’t really know what that means, other than to say it’s analogous to “city water.” The McLeans do not get board water. For whatever reason, it is not routed to their home. Apparently, at our place, we do have access to board water. As I understand it now (this understanding is hazy at best), we simply “open the valve” and the board water flows into the 1,000 gallon container. Apparently, it can take up to thirty minutes to fill, but you have to be careful that it doesn’t overflow. Honestly I don’t have the foggiest. Now at the McLean’s house, they have a water reclamation system where any rainfall will replenish their supply. How sweet is that! And now that we are just about to start the rainy season here, they will not have to truck in water until sometime in December probably. I love being green. Did you know it’s illegal to collect rainwater using this method in Colorado?
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