Journey to Water

Today, like many days, Longdongbao was without water.  As avid readers know, going without water for a day or two is not an uncommon event in Longdongbao.  Today, however, it was announced that the pipe lines (or something) that run to our little town from Guiyang broke and that it would be at least 4 days before we can even think of having water in Longdongbao again.  The whole town was distraught, as, unlike the other times we went without water for long stretches, this time there is no vacation or holiday taking place so everyone is still in town and feeling the loss. 

Tonight, after 2 days of no water, I heard a loud commotion taking place outside, went to my window to check out the scene, and then a random student yelled up to tell me that I should bring a bucket down.  I rushed outside (with a large red bucket) and followed hoards of students, laborers, cooks and Longdongbao families, all carrying empty buckets, to the far end of my campus.  I'm not sure what happened, but from a wall on one of our buildings on campus something broke (in retrospect, I'm not sure if it was an intentional break or not) and water was gushing out.  Masses of us stood in solidarity, holding up our buckets and catching whatever water we could get.  It was a blast. We got drenched, and the night air was already cool, but we were so eager to get this bit of water while it lasted that we didn't care. People who normally are afraid of me, the extremely white waijiao, looked at me, noticed we were in this together, and laughed with me, then we all helped each other to get our buckets filled up. 

My bucket was heavy, very heavy, and the walk (without a heavy bucket) is 15 minutes from that building to my apartment. I trudged on without a single grunt, though, happily hauling my bucket, surrounded by people in the same boat as me, accidentally splashing joyous water all over my clothes with each step, smiling through the discomfort at what a glorious moment I was sharing with all of these equally needy people.

After finally arriving at the foot of my building, I trekked up four flights of stairs carrying my red bucket, hauled it all the way into my bathroom without even stopping to hit the light switch, set it down on the bathroom floor, finally flipped on the light anxious to give myself a much-needed sponge bath, only to see that the water was filthy.

Good grief.
;)