Water woes

Hello everyone,
Just a quick note to let you know what's been going on here, as we've been trying to get ready to go to South Africa.

For starters, we've had no water in our house for 2 days! Our water pump is broken, and they can't get someone out to fix it until tomorrow, which is when we are leaving! So, I've had loads of dirty laundry to do and a sink full of dirty dishes, but no water to do them! Of course, all the clothes that we want to take with us on our trip, are the ones that are dirty! I went to a friend's house to use her washer, but she has just moved into her house, and has not really learned how to use her washing machine. The shortest amount of time we could get a cycle to wash for was 45 minutes. But then, their power kept going out, and so we had to keep starting the cycle over. For 2 loads of laundry, it took me 5 hours--I kid you not! And that did not even include drying the laundry. Their dryer was even slower than the washer! I just took all my clothes home wet, and dried them in my dryer--at least my power was not out!

To get water to flush our toilets, we've been going out to the main guest house where new people or visitors stay, and filling up our 2 and 3 gallon jugs. We've had to do that about 3 times today.

Then, tonight, arrangements were made for us to have showers at this guest house, as I had not had a shower in 2 days (pee yew)! The kids and I went there tonight, and the shower was a joke! It was just a trickle coming out of the shower head, and the shower head would only point straight down, so we had to stand really close to the shower wall just to have the water hit us. Then, the water would alternate between scalding hot and freezing cold, but nothing in between. The kids were troopers, and we all managed to get a shower! Bill is in for a treat tomorrow morning!

To top it all off, Jensen and I have been sick this week with sore throats and colds. Jensen has had a fever as well, and now she has a horrible cough, which sounds like it could be bronchitis. She does seem to be doing better today though, so I'm hoping the worst is behind us, and we'll be able to enjoy our vacation.

That's all for now. Just wanted to let you know what we've been going through, as we've been trying to get ready for our vacation--sort of a Murphy's Law kind of thing!

Will write again when we return home.

Laurie