No water-too much water

Thursday morning March 20, 2008 started out not so good. Instead of water coming out when it was time to shower, water squirts and lots of air were coming out. It got worse. It went from water mixed with air, to air mixed with air. No water, whatsoever. That's not good in the US of A. It's worse in Nigeria. We had our fridge stocked with filtered and boiled water. We had the toilet tank full and two buckets full of water beside the toilet in reserve, for "flushes." In addition to this little challenge, we had only partial power part of the time all day and into the night. This was a no good, very bad day..... but comical as all get out. You couldn't do anything but roll with it. Friday morning dawns with the prospect of spit baths using the extra buckets of water, soap and a wash rag. We got through that and heated water for the good old boiling water in the sink shave for me. Got through that OK, still grinning. Not much power and no water. There are big reserve tanks on the ground inside our compound, one red, one blue. I don't know the significance of the colors, but we are glad the tanks are there. In the no power, no water situation we take our buckets out to the big tanks and fill them up.

Now comes the comedy. Friday is a National Holiday as is Monday. Easter Weekend goes for 4 days. So, no water, and not much power and it's hot in Nigeria, folks. What do you think the chances are to get a plumber and an electrician to correct the issues? Not good, we figured. Low and behold a plumber showed up about 9 AM. His tool box was impressive. It consisted of a pipe wrench and a pair of channel locks with some teflon tape in a Walmart type plastic carry out sack. About an hour later the electrical "engineer" showed up with his "tool box", another Walmart type plastic carry out sack with some pliers and two screw drivers. With some interesting work, these two "engineers" had us with water and power by 1 PM . It's now almost 9 PM and water and power are both still working. The Lord blesses his Missionaries, we can bear testimony to that.

Once the water came on, the missionary couple upstairs could not get any hot water (their hot water tank was full of air and we had to bleed it out). Elder Wadsworth of the "upper kingdom" asked me to go out back where the pump is and check all the valves.. I did and found one in the "off" position. Logic says, "no hot water...valve is off. Simple solution, turn the valve on." Well, that wasn't good. The valve was off for a good reason. It was connected to a faucet under our kitchen sink with the handle broken off in the "open, or on position". The valve I turned on did nothing to help the Wadsworths get hot water, but it sure got us a lot of water. A FLOOD ensued. Sister Krupp had me "turn something off, right now!" Out I went and turned off the valve I had so successfully turned on. Then I got a bucket and a mop and went to work. This little clean-up effort took most of 2 hours. No water. Too much water. The Lord sure blesses His missionaries and we are thankful for water, power and dry floors!