Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Water, Water Everywhere


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)

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