the water debacle

well.

it's 1 a.m. i just spent an hour attempting to locate the valve required to turn the water in my apartment off. but let me back up a bit.

i returned home from classes today and noticed i heard a small trickling of water coming from somewhere in my tiny closet of a bathroom. it struck me as odd because i never use the sink in this bathroom (i have another one, though i use the toilet in this one because the second toilet leaks when you turn the water on) as it is the size of a small plate and water literally goes everywhere when you turn the faucet on.

i was perplexed.

leaking pipes? from a faucet that gets no traffic? what the hell?

i spent an hour creating a tupperware/ dental floss cradle to hang from the faucet (if only i had taken pictures) to catch the dripping water before it fell to my floor and flooded the place. it was humorous. and frustrating. turns out, dental floss is somewhat difficult to craft cradles with. alas, i made one and the problem was temporarily ignored/solved.

hours of wine sipping passed by.

and i noticed a strange spraying noise emanating from the bathroom. to my horror, i discovered upon entering the bathroom that, indeed water WAS spraying from the faucet. spraying the toilet and the floor. spraying the wall. spraying the entire front side of my body.

super.

i endeavored idiotically for a long 15 minutes to try and readjust the exact location of the leaking- faucet-meets-plastic-water-pipe, where it was clear a crap job of sealing the connection had lead to my mid-night misfortune. nothing came of it.

i spent the next hour scouring the apartment, thanking my lucky stars the thought to hunt down a valve to turn off water had occurred to me. not once in my previous life (i.e. pre-peace corps) did i ever have to think about the arduous task of tracking down water valves in my domicile du jour.

i tore apart closets. and knocked on walls to find potentially hallow spaces. and searched under sinks and inside cupboards. eons of searching later and i discovered i had to slide a panel of my bathroom wall off to uncover the valve. and then, thank you peace corps safety flip charts, i remembered to turn off my water boiler so that i might have a fighting chance at leaving this country alive. i'd hate to end up the tragic victim of a boiler explosion.



my friend matt calculated there are 106 days left of teaching here. for whatever reason, i'm choosing to stay and stick this out, EVEN if it kills me. and when i return home with "experience" and minimal marketable skill sets, i'll be sure to mention to my future employer that not only am i the most stubborn person on the planet for sticking this out, i'm also pretty darn handy, too. it's not every day that someone can boast knowing how to locate removable wall panels to turn off water valves in old communist bloc apartments.

and this is why i'm glad i still have this blog to post on. as my old boss says, "you just can't make this shit up".