We are now 4 months into our term, and I can say with confidence that being a missionary comes with many moods. I’ve been trying to write a blog post for days, but each time I sit down to type, it’s like the day at hand has given me a different view/mood than the previous. I mean, I never thought mission life would be a walk in the park – at all! But it’s just hard to explain how your day to day can change so much.

One thing that remains constant is our dependence on our water tank.
Can I just say…I love our rooftop water tank?!

Honestly I think I would probably go crazy without it.
You see, we are blessed to live in a big enough city, to have city water available to our apartment which has indoor plumbing… Thank you Jesus!
The problem is that the city water only works about 40-50% of the time. That is to say, our city cuts water frequently and unexpectedly. So to combat that loss of water, we have a reservoir tank on our roof that we share with the apartment below us. The tank automatically fills when the city water is on, so that when we have a water cut we can still have water on tap. This reservoir wouldn’t last forever if we had a water cut for days on end, but in that case there is a public well just one block from our apartment that we can access for free.

Hopefully a year from now I will look back at this post and think “Wow, you were such a rookie to be concerned about water cuts”…but until then I just want to share a glimpse of this one particular challenge we face on the mission field.

So how does being “on tank water” change our day?
We can always tell when we are on tank water because of the loss in water pressure.  Since the tank works by gravity, and we are the top floor apartment, our water pressure is considerably lower than normal.

This means that the pressure is too low to use our washing machine to wash clothes. Bummer.

It also means no showers. Not only does our small hot water heater not work on tank water, but our shower head itself will only spit out a tiny trickle of water when we are on tank water. Therefore…bucket baths. If you don’t know what a bucket bath is, count yourself blessed, then go google it. I’m not gonna lie, my kids probably get one “real” shower a week, and the rest are bucket baths. We are almost always on tank water when it’s their bedtime.

It also means I have a pretty good reason not to do the dishes, you know conserving water…haha ok maybe I’m taking advantage of the situation with that one.

But seriously, water cuts are extremely common for us (as is true in many other countries around the world as well) and when it happens, I am so thankful to have a reserve tank! When I start to feel like complaining about the inconvenience, I’m reminded that many families within our city do not have indoor plumbing and must go to the nearest well for water every day. Our city is fortunate to have many working wells, but I know that’s not always the case in rural villages, where some must walk for miles to get the water they need. Definitely gives you some perspective!

So that’s our water situation here in West Africa.

P.S. In case you’re wondering, yes we filter all of our water before drinking.

P.P.S. I wasn’t kidding about the dirty dishes!

God Bless,
Rachel