The deal with the lack of luz and water…
It's now been over a week that we have received water. My doña has been borrowing water from the neighbors because we don't have enough cause 1. She cleans everything everyday and uses about 10 gallons to do so and 2. My don's brother flushes the toilet and leaves the toilet running so we run out real quick. So this is a bummer. Why does this happen? Here it is according to my doña in "dummies" terms. Well, apparently the people in the community pay for the water and the people at the water factory (or whatever) send the water through the tubes whenever they want. It can be weeks till they send it and if they do send it they can send it for an hour or so and cut if off for another week. So, people have to buy tinacos (which are big black storage tubs dominicans keep on top of their house which send water through the llave) and if theyre really wealthy they get sisternas which are other forms of storage which are underground that are connected to the tubes from the city. These sisternas have a bomba to suck up the water to the tinacos which give you giardia water through your faucets. Hope this all makes sense. For the people that can't afford these contraptions, they have to buy big blue tubs and store their water getting it from the nearest faucet then try to cover the tub (which is never successful and leads to all these hospital visits of malaria and dengue, and man theres been a lot lately.) So apparently, some people pay for the water and some people don't which means the people that do have to suffer. I also heard that everyone pays for the water but they pay the sindico or whomever and they use the money for other things like a new ceramic house for themselves or their next campaign so the city never receives their water.
Same with the luz.
Only the luz situation is worse. There is pretty much a cycle for the luz. If we get it in the morning, we won't get it in the evening and hopefully it will come by the time we have to go to bed so we can have the fans on to fight off mosquitos and stay cool. People that are wealthy have their contraptions for this too. They buy at least 4 car batteries then an inversor or have a planta (generator) to help with the loss of electricity. My family does not have this. Well, they do but they only have 2 batteries which pretty much only power one light bulb in the kitchen around dinner time or a fan during lunch to combat flies. You never really realize what you have until its gone. But this also makes you quite resourceful. I pretty much have a ritual with the loss of luz and water. Shower once and make it quick (usually like 2 minutes to 5 if I have to shave the batatas I walk with :) And charge the laptop, phone and ipod anytime theres luz so I have some resources when the lug se fue. Sometimes I find myself cheering "Yeah, llego la luz!" but then again I think "wait a minute, we should always have the luz this is not something we should be celebrating." We pay the sindicos and they use the money for other crap and promise their communities they will be the saviors that will bring the luz back. Liars. So then thats when there are riots of tire burning, and street blocking but the story still goes. Corruption will always reign the DR.
Kind of makes me sad. What the hell am I doing here. I am here trying to teach informatica in a lab where there is no electricity. How does one do that? I am here trying to teach people how to makes web pages and design products when people are more concerned if they will have enough water to bathe themselves and drink. I am happy to be here and once I start my classes hopefully I will feel empowered but some days its hard when you see the problems in the community and think, I am not attacking the real problem here. People in the DR don't need to learn how to use a computer, they need to learn how to read and they need to find a way to get their important resources like electricity and water. My purpose in being here is to teach computer classes, make the high school lab a working business after school and to train the youth and teachers in giving classes for when I am gone. I hope to do this by the end of the year. Hopefully by the beginning of next year I can be a much better resource for my community than a computer girl. I hope I can be remembered as someone that made a real difference. But how does one combat the island's situation with these necessary resources? This task and these 2 years seem impossible…
Wow bri, that's crazy! But just remember you are helping the community even though you can't give h2o to everyone you are still making a difference! You may not feel like it right away but in the long run you are! Love ya