Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Chores in the Bush

A fair number of chores carry over from life in the states to village life. There's still laundry and dishes and cooking and sweeping, but… there are also other chores.

  1. Fill the Water Filter
    It took a while for this to reach the urgency level it now holds. But it only takes one night of forgetting to refill it and giving the last of the water to your son while you and your spouse stare at the slowly dripping water waiting for enough to bring down the thirst from "parched" to to vow to make the water filter top priority! It does a great job! And that takes time. So we refill it
    at least every night and often once or twice more during the day.
  2. Hauling water
    To fill the water filter and wash dishes and babies and whatnot, water needs to be brought up. Luckily the house we're staying in has a water tank so the water is only being hauled from downstairs and not a 10 minute hike downhill!
  3. Solar Panels
    If you want to charge any device or enjoy light after dark, you have to set out the solar panels in the morning, and, in the afternoon, turn them to face the setting sun. You also have to move the battery around periodically to keep it out of the sun and rain!
  4. Mosquito Coils
    In the morning and the evening, mosquito coils are set to burn and keep the mozzies away. We put it on a plate so the ash doesn't get everywhere and empty the ash before holding a lighter under the start
    forever. It takes a minute to catch. But it keeps the malaria away!
  5. Flush
    At least every morning, the toilet gets emptied into the outhouse, which, for the record, is so gross, Jacob just chose to go outside instead. We use the toilet a couple of times at night and we toss in the overnight disposable diapers in too. We also flush whenever … ahem … a movement strikes us. (Under the tin roof… things get warm. And warm things get smelly…)
  6. Set dinner out to hydrate
    While a more familiar chore may be setting dinner out to thaw, here it's not frozen but dried. So we drop our meal in a pot and cover it with water and leave it. The longer the better!
  7. Emptying the gray water
    After doing dishes and washing hands and whatnot, all the water that's collected in the basin gets gross! And heavy! So it has to be brought downstairs and thrown out before it gets too heavy to carry!


So there's life in the bush. The things that you turn a knob or flip a switch for in the States, we have to add to our agenda.