Tons of water everywhere...except from the faucet!

We've been told that October through December was supposed to be the rainy season, and so far they've been right! It has been raining pretty consistently for the past few weeks. After living here during August and September, I was already getting used to the hot and humid weather (being able to go to the beach every day was a plus too). Click on this link to see a short video Sara took of how the weather and beaches in Tela used to be:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9q6NYmb_3Q
I would've never thought that the socks and sweaters I packed in my suitcase could have ever come in handy! The change in weather has it's advantages and disadvantages though... It's definitely nice to be able to cuddle up and actually use the blankets that I brought, and it's nice not to feel like I have to take a cold shower every 10 minutes just to cool off from the unbearable humidity. But with the rain comes not being able to do laundry, because drying clothes on the clothesline is pretty much impossible, not to mention the fact that the water is shut off more often so even if I wanted to do laundry, I couldn't! Plus, the electricity also gets shut off more frequently. Also, Sara and I are held captive in our house because going anywhere would involve us getting COMPLETELY soaked on our bikes. School was actually cancelled for the kids today because of the rain.
We were trapped in our house this past weekend for exactly that reason, the rain would let up for only 15-20 minutes, then out of nowhere it would start raining again, so hard that it sounded like hail hitting our roof. We were both really getting cabin fever, I mean, how long would anyone last spending day after day sitting in your bed, reading, watching movies, eating, and checking the faucet to see if the water's turned back on every 10 minutes?! Believe it or not, I'm already on my 12th book since I've been here!

The picture on the right shows my towels that have now been hanging outside for practically two weeks because they won't dry! Not to mention they were a complete and utter pain to hand wash in the first place! I can't decide if I should try to hang them up inside the house, where it would probably take forever to dry, and make the house smell like mildew, or if I should just leave them outside for now and rewash them (which I couldn't even do until recently because the water just got turned back on!). Either way I've finally come to grips with the fact that no matter where the towels finally get dry, they will smell like mildew because of all the rain!

The water usually gets shut off a few times a week in the afternoon (even without the rain), but last week it was shut off COMPLETELY from Thursday afternoon until Tuesday (yesterday) night! We got so desperate for water that Sara had to put out buckets and bowls outside to collect the rainwater so we could at least try to wash dishes and take showers!But the rainwater was so cold, that in order for us to take showers we had to so through an entire process....

1) Very carefully pick up and drag our pretty large "shower bucket" from the front of the house to our bathroom, while trying not to spill too much water.

2)Waiting about 30-40 min for a pot of rainwater to boil on the stove.

3) Carefully carry the pot of water (which conveniently has no handles) into the bathroom and pour it into the large "shower bucket." It would be great if this at least made warm water, but because the rainwater is so cold, it only makes it slightly lukewarm.

4) Use a pitcher to pour the water on our bodies, while rushing the entire time because every second spent in the shower means FREEZING our butts off!

Washing the dishes using a pitcher of rainwater was pretty difficult too, no matter what I did, I couldn't convince myself they were ever getting clean! Flushing the toilet was another huge problem. We could only flush the toilet when absolutely necessary, and even then, we had to walk in and out of the house 4-5 times getting rainwater from outside, using a pitcher, until the tank in the back of the toilet filled up enough for us to be able to actually flush! Needless to say, running water is definately at the top my list of things I miss about living in the US!

Oh well! I guess I shouldn't be complaining too much, it's always either too hot or too cold here for me! :)

The picture below shows boys playing on the soccer field right next door to our house. The rain and mud never seems to phase them. They even run around completely barefoot kicking around and splashing tons of mud as they play. They were all completely brown, covered in mud, when Sara took this photo.

The other picture below shows the makeshift pathway Sara made in the front of our house using rocks. It's the only way we can get in and out of the house without getting our feet completely soaked in the gross, muddy water. We have to do a pretty impressive balancing act on the rocks every day while we try to lock the gate behind us. This ordeal usually takes a good 5 minutes because: it's raining, the lock is so rusted from the rain that it never closes the first 10 times you try, and we're doing this while standing on unsteady rocks and trying not to fall into the mud, all the while holding our bags for work, and an umbrella!