I leave my house for work and get called over by two village women awaiting their chance to do business with the chief. The first smiles Featured Post U motenya! Sunday, January 31, A Life Unplumbed. Life in my rural village in Lesotho is entirely unplumbed.
Their toilet, sinks, and bathtub are fed by their own well. For the rest of us, drawing and conserving water is a regular part of our daily life. When nature provides it for us, we collect as much as we can in whatever we can; L metal drums, fancy plastic rain barrels significantly larger than what people in America have, basins, buckets, etc. We recently had two weeks with great rain. Within twenty-four hours of it stopping, I spoke with a friend who was gather muddy water from puddles to save for her gardens in case the rains do not return.
So, what is it like to live life entirely unplumbed? I will share the nuances of living without plumbing; however, today I will ignore the lack of a toilet as I wrote about that in Outs. I encourage you to click through and read that post as well. I was lucky in that I had a few dry runs pun intended before I joined Peace Corps.
When I sailed, some vessels only plumbed the heads toilets and galley kitchen sink. When we wanted water to drink, we used the igloo that was regularly refilled in the galley. When we wanted water to clean the ship or ourselves, we filled a bucket with seawater.
In both cases, however, I regularly engaged with the outside world-taking traditional showers and using machines for laundry. In the last twenty months, however, I have averaged less than one traditional shower a month and have used machines to do my laundry only a handful of times. Every drop of water that I engage with for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and even watering my garden has been carried in a bucket before being put into use.
