Electricity 24 hours a day, central heating, running water, hot showers, internet access. These are just some of the things I take for granted in the UK and are some of the things I have had trouble with in the past few weeks.
Over the past week most days we have had no more than two or three hours of mains electricity and the solar battery that gives me light when the mains are off broke. This also means that the internet is intermittent Fortunately I have access to a generator for emergencies!
My water is pumped from a well into a tank on my roof, because we have had no electricity it has been difficult to pump water up. Also because one of my taps was broken I couldn't turn it off (or on more than it was) and so water was going straight down the drain, literally.
It was the cold tap on my shower that was broken, and although it was enough to drain the tank, it wasn't flowing sufficiently to make my shower cool enough to stand under so the choice was a scalding shower or no shower.
Here most people heat their homes using bukhuris - diesel/ wood burning stoves. I bought one second hand and have had lots of trouble with the chimney pipes, soot and diesel. While I am typing this my chaokidor (guard) is doing his best to fix it for me!
One of these things going wrong is annoying, all of them together would normally be enough to push me over the edge, however something strange has happened; I seem to have gained some perspective here! I am fortunate, I know eventually my heater will work, the generator will kick in and my tap will be fixed. So many people living across Kabul and beyond live with these problems every day and don't have the resources to have them fixed.
In the footsteps of another "I am learning to be content in all circumstances..."
