One day as I was completing some small chores around the house, I thought of the many small Haiti chores that come along with living here. Chores here are very necessary, but things you may never think of in the States. I took some pictures to document.
Electricity: So many things here are related to electricity including the water. We have our electronics center...
Our inverter charges our batteries (which are on just the other side of the wall behind the inverter) whenever we have EDH (city power). EDH comes on for 8 a day at the most. Zero hours per day for 3-4 days at the worst. Task for the inverter is to constantly monitor electricity usage so as to not drain our batteries too quickly, turn it off once the batteries get to low, and then move on to the generators.
At night I turn on the small gas powered generator if needed so as to not disturb the neighbors. The big one I turn on during the day to charge our batteries. Going to buy gas or diesel are probably once a week chores. Making sure we have electricity to power our fans and fridge tops out the priority list.
When we have to run off the small generator, the floor of our apartment suddenly turns into a maze of wires. (Actually it stays a maze of wires, we just have to rearrange the maze.)
And just to make sure we do not use too much energy, I had to unscrew the big round bulbs and install one energy efficient bulb.
We did experience a 4 or 5 day drought of electricity in which we received rain every day, but could not get water to the top of our two story storage tank. So we had to improvise and move the big generator around to our water pump. I was starting to get a little worried when our massive water tank in the ground got to half full, and we still could not run our well pump even with our big generator. Fortunately, EDH came on that day. One more chore though, is to make sure we have a full tank of water, and if not, run the pump when we have electricity.
And even though we have a well, I still have to go to the store every 3 days or so to purchase drinking water. If I go in the afternoon, there are a group of young boys who are glad to escort me across the busy street for "one dolla". I must insist that I can do it on my own.
There are several nightly routines that I follow. The first is to brush my teeth, without tap water of course.
Then shower with our always trickle of water. Literally we have the water pressure of next to nothing. Wash one arm and then the other...
I must make sure we have ice for the next day. No automatic ice maker, and all filled by hand.
The evening starts with a visit right at 6:00 from our night guard. I store the shotgun in the apartment until he comes by to pick it up and hopefully not use it until 6:00 the next morning. It's hit or miss whether or not he has to use it.
After the wonderful supper my amazing wife cooks I will (most of the time) do dishes. Our tiny one bowl sink will barely hold anything, so we had to adapt. Two big plastic bowls are now our sink. One for cool to lukewarm dish soap water, and the other for bleached rinse water. And after we are done, I have to dispose of the bleach water downstairs so as to not mess up our septic system.
And finally bedtime... The biggest responsibility of the evening lies in securing the castle against flying invaders. A quickly learned mosquito net lesson has turned into nightly routine. You MUST tuck in the bottoms of the net between the mattresses all the way around. Or somehow the mosquitoes who stay under the bed during the day will find their way inside.
We sleep well, secure from flying bloodsuckers, the fans right next to our ears drowning out the preacher next door who extols loudly, or the horns honking, or the roosters crowing. Wishful thinking on the rooster. He is up bright and early at 4:30, almost just in time for me to get up and accept the shotgun back at 6:00. Sunshine at 5:30 and another day of routines begins.
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