This summer I have had several adventures involving water.
It all started when my friend Sarah was visiting me. Her last day here, all of
the water in our apartment went out (the toilet water and the tap water). Here
(I don't know if this is a China thing or a my apartment complex thing, but in
general here) the tap water and the toilet water are separate, so if one goes
out the other one does not normally go out, but that day both were out. I
texted one of my friends, who also lives in my building, and asked her if she
had water. She also did not have water, so I knew that it was a whole building
problem not just me. My friend and I went out for the day, so it really was no
big deal that we did not have water.
For several days before that day, it had been threatening to
rain, but it had not yet rained, so my friend and I assumed that we were safe
to be out and about. It was her last night in China, so she wanted to go to
Trash Mountain. (This is actually a mountain made out of trash. However, the
trash has been covered, and now it is a beautiful park. Also, mountain is a bit
generous of a term for this mound of former trash). Anyways, as we were
climbing the “mountain,” the sky started to rumble, and the wind began to pick
up. I asked my friend if we should turn back, but she wanted to go to the top.
The previous day it we had turned back because we thought it would rain, and it
never did, so we did not want to waste her last night in China. As we got
closer and closer to the top, the sky got darker and darker. When we got to
top, we looked around for a bit, but we knew that we did not have a lot of time
to get back down before the rain would come.
On the way back down the mountain, we planned to try to get
a taxi home so that we would not have to walk home in the rain. Unfortunately,
part way down the mountain big drops of water began to fall from the sky. Once
we got wet, it was over – no taxi would take us then. We began walking faster
and faster hoping to make it home before the storm really hit, but it was too
late. Our clothing completely soaked through, the wind roaring through the
trees, and the streets beginning to flood, we took refuge in a W.C. (Water
Closet - British word for a restroom).
Already inside were a Chinese family with two young children and a middle-aged
woman. As we waited a young boy on a bike and a man in his late twenties also
joined us.
Once the rain had let up, we began the trek home. As we were
walking home, we discovered that the road that we had to cross to get home was
completely flooded and that we would have to walk through flooded, sewage-filled
streets to get home. We hesitated at first and looked for alternate routes, but
it seemed like that was our only option. We did whatever we could to stay on non-flooded
sidewalks, including holding on to the side of a food vender truck as we
shimmed along the curb, but walking through flooded streets was simply
unavoidable.
(This is a picture that my friend took on our walk home from Trash Mountain)
We got home only semi-damp, praying that our water was
working again, but sadly it was not. So we had walked through dirty rainwater,
and we could not shower. And all of my friends whom I would normally call if I
needed a shower were either out of town or also without water. The solution was
purell and baby wipes.
Thankfully, the next morning the tap water was back on and we
were able to shower and to wash our shoes. However, the toilet water remained
off for 12 more days!
The next water adventure happened when we ran out of water.
In China, we have a water meter under our sink. When we have used up all of the
water that we have paid for, the water goes out. Then you go to the store; put
money on your water card, and then you go home and put the water card in the
meter under your sink. This is similar to the electricity; you can read about
my adventures with electricity here.
When our water ran out, I tried to put
the water card in the meter, but it did not read it. I had thought that my
roommate had said that it was full, but I figured that maybe I was mistaken.
The next morning I took the card to get it filled. That evening when I went to
pick it up, the lady told me that the card was not our card. It is 15-307's
card. Apparently, my roommate had gone and filled our water card, but when they
gave it back to her, they gave her the wrong one.
So we had no water, and we had to buy a
new card. However, we could not buy a new card until the next day, and the next
day I had to go to school because I was teaching at the summer English camp
that my school was having. Thankfully, I called my ayi, and she bought a new
card for us.
So the next day, when we came home from
school, ayi had taken care of everything. Soon after we got home, we got a
knock on the door. It was the women from the apartment above us, telling us
that neither the 21st nor the 22nd floor had water. She
said a bunch of other things that I did not understand, but I think the main
point of her coming down was to find out if we had water. Our water pressure
wasn’t great (as it often is not – it’s hard to pump water up the 20th
floor), but we did indeed have water.
Summer in Tianjin seems to be filled with
water adventures. There’s also the tree that fell over in the storm last night
and the day two summers ago when we had to cancel summer school because of rain
and flooding, but I don’t have time to tell them here. All in all, these
adventures, though they can be frustrating and uncomfortable at times, make for
good stories. Plus the rain brings beautiful blue skies.
(Here's the tree that fell over in the storm last night)
(The day after the storm sky)
