Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Living without hot water


This photo is an attempt to show a negative--no hot water tap. Our house has no hot water--not just occasionally, but never. We have no hot water heater. There are houses here that have hot water (though interestingly enough, very seldom in the kitchen), but it didn't occur to us when we were choosing a house that this was something we'd need to make certain of.

We wash our dishes in plain old tap water--not exactly cold since those pipes are in Sudan--but not hot either. We use lots of dish detergent, but every now and then I feel guilty and rinse all the dishes in boiling water.

We shower and bathe in cold water (again, not exactly cold, more slightly chilly or lukewarm water) except that occasionally we boil some water and fill up the washtub and do baths on the floor of the kitchen.

2 comments:

Saints and Spinners said...

Greetings! I followed your link from Fuse's blog.

For the first 6-7 years of my life, I lived in a house without hot running water (or for that matter, any indoor plumbing besides the kitchen sink). When I visited Cote d'Ivoire as a post-junior in college, I put down on my list of preferences that the one thing I'd really really like to have access to was indoor plumbing. I got it. There was no hot water, but it turned out not to be such a big deal when living three degrees north of the equator. Still, the one hot shower I had at a friend's house during my three months' stay was heavenly.

Annette said...

So far we've always had inside plumbing. One more thing to be grateful for!