I have awakened every morning for the past 10 days to the glow of another perfectly cloudless day. Some would say, “How wonderful! No chance of rain to spoil your activities.” And that is true.

However, the flip side of that is that if there is no rain, the river and underground sources of water that quench the thirst of this city dry up. I have not heard the water fall but once for a very short time in the past two weeks. This means the water in the cistern is getting low and lower; not quite empty, but close.

With an extra person living in the house now, that means we use even more water. Add when a group of 7 or 8 relatives just show up for the weekend, all the extra bathing, toileting and dirty dishes that needed to be washed, well…

Last week when I was confined because of my knee, I could thankfully get water at the laundry area on my patio. I purchased a calentador (an electric heating coil) to heat water in a bucket so I did not have to carry or have carried hot water to bathe with.

Water heater (calentador)

Shortly thereafter, though, the cistern level was too low to get any from that source. So I have been carrying (or more accurately lifting and setting two steps at a time) a bucket up one flight. Thankfully, not three.

Last night, even that appears to have come to an end. As I drew water for flushing the toilet, I was able to get only 1/2 bucket from the tap. I do hope that the strong, young teenager of the house is willing to schlep a bucket of water up to the roof each day because though I am up to the challenge of hefting it one floor, my knee, still a little weak from my fall, has all it can do to lift me up three flights of stairs without adding 25-30 pounds of water.

Maybe it is time to pray for rain or at least that the water department bless us with a little “fall.” Actually, at this point it might be best to run out completely so we can clean out the cistern and buy water to fill it up.

But you know…

Things could be worse; at least we have water in the house. Vanessa reported that the house they put her in in San Luis Potosi has none at all, except during the rainy season (which this is not). She must go to the house of a friend two blocks away (where they have plenty of water) to bathe.

Sometimes in another country life is truly an adventure.

So, when you turn on your faucet today, and clean, drinkable water comes rushing out, think of the millions in this world who do not have that luxury. And please, don’t waste even a single drop, for as a friend here said recently, “You can live without heat, or food, or electricity, you can live without a lot of things, but you cannot live without water.”