The 10-Day No Water Challenge

The water stockpile

Apparently (and I say "apparently" because I only hear about this stuff through word-of-mouth), from May 10 to May 20 residents of Comrat will not have any water. Every year they clean out the pipes through a chlorination process. So far the water has been mostly shut off, but some people have reported having extremely green chlorinated water flowing through their pipes off and on.

What really knocks me out is the fact that there's no official way of notifying people about this. There's no signs, notices, whatever. I don't read Comrat newspapers because they tend to be pretty boring official government stuff written in a quite Soviet style ("Respected Students, we congratulate you on the first day of the new academic year!"), so I can't say if they put something in the paper. Actually, I don't watch much of the local news either, so perhaps it's my own fault I don't know anything. Still, in the U.S. they'd at least leave a flier for you or something.

It reminds me of a sociology class I took in the Global Studies department, where our professor explained that in traditional societies, all interactions function to strengthen community ties. In a way it's sort of logical. If the only way to get information is through your relationships, you will probably cultivate better relationships.

(As if to prove this point, as I was writing this, Jen, one of the Peace Corps Volunteers here, messaged me on Facebook to tell me that there will allegedly be water tomorrow. This is exciting news.)

Thankfully, I heard about the water situation beforehand from the Turkish girls and was able to stockpile water and do three loads of laundry before it got cut off. There are certain interesting challenges of living without running water. I saved about 50 liters of water, but it's really not enough. Without water, you can't flush the toilet, do dishes, take a shower, wash your clothes, brush your teeth, etc. You can do some of these things with bottled water, but some of them take up a surprising amount of water. I swear it takes a liter to wash one small pot! And don't even get me started on how much water it takes to flush a toilet. I may have to buy myself a bucket and use well water.

I'm already disgruntled and it's only Day 3. I may have to escape to Chisinau this weekend in order to bathe.