Mystery Bucket

Mystery solved.

So this story goes back to my first few days in El Sauce. It always seemed to be a mystery, completely unpredictable when one could turn on the faucet and expect, say, water, versus a few gurgling sounds and a burst of air. This, I thought, must be the rural life, so okay, I’ll just not really enter the bathroom with any preconceived notions of what, in fact, might be functional on that particular day. I knew that soon I would be moving back to Leon. However, alas, the inconsistency of running water availablility has followed me, being particularly poorly timed over the past week.

Case in point- worked from Tues morning until Wed afternoon, no shower of course, got home exhausted and slept until the next morning. Cut to Thursday morning, turning the faucet on the shower and…. nothing. Crap. OK, no problem, I can be adaptable. That is why God invented the ponytail, right? Good thing I’m growing my hair out. So off I went to work after some creative deodorant and perfume application.

Thursday night after dance class- wow, I am pretty stinky. Dance class isn’t as low impact as it may seem. And I’m going out to Latin dance night at a local club with some new friends so this is a problem- I can hardly WAIT to jump in the shower! So in I go and, again, nothing. Bad news. Luckily, there is a torrential downpour outside (happens about every other day), so being the adaptable person that I am, I just jump into my bathing suit and head out into the patio area- I mean, technically you could think of a rainy day as just a big shower, right? This plan works out satisfactorially and I manage to avoid offending anyone at the club.

So last night I went out with Meylan (Dra Gutierrez from El Sauce) and a group of her girlfriends. I am wondering – what the heck is going on with this? Where there public works this week? Do I just have terrible luck? So I tell them my rain shower story and they all just look at me and ask “didn’t you fill your bucket?” Ummmm, “huh?” They answer “every house in Leon has a bucket! Don’t you have a bucket?”

Flashback to when I first moved into my new place. In the corner of the shower is a big blue plastic bucket (like three times the size of a mop bucket) with a small blue plastic bowl inside. I figure that this must be left from when they were cleaning the bathroom- I mean who wants to haul buckets from room to room, right? So easier to just keep one in each unit. I should add that I didn’t confirm this with anyone and that any lack of logic in this line of thinking was completely missed.

So it turns out, as Meylan explained to me, that I should EXPECT for the water not to work. Apparently these buckets are household staples because if the water is working in the evening you are supposed to fill it up just in case there is no water in the morning. The little plastic bowl is for taking some out to pour over your head. Oooooohhhhh. Wow. OK. Let me just add that the fact that I have missed out on this strategy for a few weeks now was a source of great amusement for everyone at the table Still learning! I was cracking up too! Oh well, someday I’ll catch on to these things. Needless to say, I now have a giant plastic bucket full of water in the shower….

Best- Dra MV

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