Water

As I wrote around Christmas-time, I always feel overwhelmed when I got into the city, and can't help comparing my experience with the experiences of my city friends. They, generally, have access to licuados, stores with long pants, fruit markets, chocolate, refrigerators, etc., but there is one main resource where my access is many times greater: water.

My two fellow SALTers have already blogged about their water experiences (Charissa and Elise). For them, as well as the other MCC workers in Tegucigalpa, water use always has to be thought about. The municipal water is only turned on in their neighbourhood a couple of times per month. When the water comes, they fill pilas, tanks and other containers to ensure they have enough water for the next couple of weeks.

In comparison, water has flowed into my house every day since I arrived in La Campa. I can take a shower every day, and water gushes from the showerhead. I am not restricted to a bucket shower (although my showers were cold water until the end of December when the shower water heater arrived, while my friends could heat up the water for their buckets). But now I enjoy a steaming shower every morning, slapping the mosquitos who have made my shower their habitat. I can also wash my clothes and bedding whenever I want. There is always water in the pila for this high consumption process.

Piped water only came to La Campa about 15 years ago. Before that, all water had to come from the river. People would bring laundry down to the river to wash it, and would carry water up the very steep hill to their homes. A few lucky families live right on the river, but the rest live well above it. Thanks to La Campa's proximity to Celaque, the highest mountain in Honduras and a major source of water to western Honduras, there was always water in the river, even in the dry season. And now that the water comes directly to the houses from a spring up the mountain, the water comes to the house 24 hours per day, every day of the year. For this splendid service, my family only has to pay L15 per mont (less than $1)!