Plumbing and Water

Our kitchen sink was backed up for about a month.  We had problems with it before but a plunger was a sufficient temporary remedy.  Then finally it got to the point where all of my creative plunging techniques weren't enough and we had to get a plumber.  I went to Andiamo campus on the other side of town where they have things like electricians, cobblers (shoe guys, not the desert), ice cream (the desert), and plumbers and asked the office if the plumber was available.  The receptionist didn't have a clue what I was talking about until I explained that I needed someone to fix pipes and then I got an "Oh, you mean a plumBer".  I had no idea that I have been pronouncing "plumber" incorrectly all this time.  How embarassing.  Anyways, after the standard waiting around that procedes just about everything, I finally met the plumber (Jesus from the way of the cross) and he said he would be there in a few hours.  I went home and sure enough, a few hours later he showed up on a bicycle with...a plunger and a wrench.  Yada, yada, yada, a month later there is a hole in the wall and the drain is clear.  We managed alright.  It just meant we had to make sure that all the water was thrown out the back door.  Unfortunately we have not been able to give the drain a thorough test since it was repaired just in time for the water tower's pipes to jam with the calcium pushed down them during the regular cleaning cutting the water off from the entire campus.  The absence of water also happened to coincide with the return of a few hundred girls to the campus for the start of a new term.  It was just a few days of using water from buckets brought from the hand pump near the boarding so it wasn't bad.  Of course, the minor inconvienence for us must have paled in comparison to the boarding occupied by over one hundred young women restroom situation that I can't or just don't want to imagine.  Someone, other than hapless volunteers, finally worked on the water tower, and fixed the problem.  I only hope it was in time for the girls in the boarding to take care of any un-niceness that I still don't want to imagine.