Water of Life

The blog is a bit quiet at the moment, as we are in a busy period. After a full-on weekend, last week, Neil is gearing up for a Holiday Club in Huambutio, while I am going on a youth camp next Wednesday for 3 days. It was therefore, not perfect timing, to find a man outside the front door yesterday late afternoon, while we were on the way to Kids's Club. I had the children with me, and I asked what he wanted. He explained that he had cut the water for the whole building, as the bills hadn't been paid. I explained that we had paid all of our bills and we needed water! There is a vacant flat with unpaid bills, but not us.

After some bad Spanish on the phone to my landlord, my lovely friend Cecilia stepped in and helped me. We left all of the children at Kid's Club and attempted to race to the centre, to sort things out at the main office. This turned out to be very difficult, as roads were shut once again for more festivities. We knew we had a deadline of 6pm, when the office shut and were disheartened by the news that they wouldn't turn the water back on after 5pm. Faced with queues, we attempted to circumnavigate the system by taking all available tickets in the queueing system.

We were sent back and forth to various people, before I finally paid the bill for the vacant flat, there seeming to be no other option and there being some issue with whether we were paying for the right amount of water in the last month. We then went to find a man who could help with the water, only to be told that there was no way that we would have any until Saturday - which was better than my dread of not having water until Monday. I think my pitiful face combined with Cecilia's persuasive Spanish caught the attention of a lovely man who was leaving work, and he took us to someone who could help. A short phone call - and a miraculously short form later, and apparently it was all fixed. All we had to do now was fight back through the dancers, festivities and traffic and reclaim our abandoned children.

Before Neil got home from Kid's Club, the water was back on. We are very grateful for this precious gift, and I am just hoping that we don't have the same problem next month.