It Is The Source Of Life

Day 3 without running water.

It turns out that not only do those folks at UNICEF drive very new, luxurious cars. They also enjoy special privileges. An ancient but big, red Renault fire engine was parking outside UNICEF, pumping what is obviously a load of water into what can only be a water tank, causing me to gasp in envy as I passed by their Yaounde headquarters on my way back from the British Council.

I had just sat an examination in the British Council. British Council staff are very friendly, and they look professional enough to reject and be offended by bribes. Yes, you never know about the latter but they can be given the benefit of the doubt, and as it is the only nearby place I can retreat to, I refuse to believe it is tainted; however, that doesn't mean I haven't wondered how useful it would be to bring in all the textbooks and notes, and to be given 5 instead of just 3 hours. Never trust a Chinese guy.*

That aside, a serious question that comes to mind is: What if there was a blackout as happens so often recently, and it became pitch-dark? Or: I haven't showered in 3 days, will I be able to shower some time in the next 3 days? These are the kind of questions I asked myself as I was preparing to get a zero in an exam in a subject for which the textbooks I was unable to get hold of until much too late.

There may be no more fitting a time to bring up the issue of colonial legacy than while I'm in a ranting mood. Even if it doesn't make perfect sense, given its context. In a way, I'm just putting blame on others for my current situation. See, the first colonists to arrive in Cameroon were the Germans, whose enthusiasm for beer and beer brewing must have been contagious; then came the French, with their unique love for (their own) wine -- and by so doing, they have turned Cameroonians into serious alcoholics and French wine importers.* One would be grateful if the variety in snacks and bread spread was half of what is available in alcoholic beverages. To be honest, a number of good traits could have rubbed off on them, too: On the one hand, punctuality and discipline from the Germans, but no; and from the French, things like..... well, I don't know. One thing they do appear to have from the French, though, is an ability to go on strikes. Good things no learn, learn bad things ah. Now, labour law may not be quite the same as in France and you can get arrested for many absurd reasons, so I don't know how often workers actually dare to go on strikes; yet I can't help it, I keep seeing the French connection as I'm eagerly awaiting the return of running water. It is an employees' strike at the water company that is making me stink. Water outage has been occuring in irregular intervals in all parts of the city without notice but, if it's any consolation, never for longer than a day. This time it's been rumoured in our neighborhood that it could last an entire week. Not having running water sucks. You prepare yourself for it when you go camping or travel to a beautiful island that is very isolated, but at home it's a no-no. I can live with a lot of things but take away the daily shower from me, and I'm out of my comfort zone.

Grumpiness has reached high levels. Someone has to lose points.. okay, UNICEF and the French it is. Needless to say, Cameroonian leadership, too, and they're top of the list -- because water outages are fatal: We are lucky enough to be able to buy sufficient quantities of bottled water and get a supply of medium-sized plastic containers worth of tap water from outer districts where it hasn't yet failed; but to meet their needs, a lot of people resort to rather dirty, potentially hazardous river water.

Practicalities of living under such circumstances: You prepare foods that require less water than others, find the most efficient way of using it when washing dishes, save as much water of reasonable cleanness as possible for toilet flushing, and you change into clean clothes while leaving worn clothes unwashed in hopes that direct supply of water would be restored before you run out of clean clothes to change into. Apropos toilets, wow, those new, fancy toilets that use little more than one liter of water for a flushing? That's quite a feat, actually.

(Update:) On Day 4, water was running again like a miracle, but the return of water was accompanied by the parting of electricity. On Day 5, realizing with a sigh of relief that 3 days of water outage would not be followed by 3 days of power outage or longer, I was able to finish writing this post.



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* West 3 - 3 East.