Water.
Without water, no life is possible. And, I tell you – no lodge either. This is supposed to be the rainy season but the rain is letting us down – it just refuses to fall. Right now the sky is cloudy and I hear distant thunder and maybe a few drops find their way onto my roof ... and then the evening sun shines through the leaves of the forest again. Arrgh. Our dam on the hilltop dried out about a week ago. Before that, the water was getting less and less ... until only some muddy puddles were left ... and then, gone. All gone. And no rain to fill it up again. Now that I've gotten so used to having constant water supply, it's very annoying to be without it again. The shower doesn't work any more – it is gravity fed from the dam – and neither does the toilet, that needs to be flushed with a bucket of water. So, off to the bushes we go again ... and into the river if we need a bath. Our clothes are getting dirtier and dirtier and so are our fingernails, and soon we will have to give our plates to the cat to lick clean cause there's no dishwashing water. Just kidding. ;-) Anyway, somewhere nearby we found a spring, so now we try to use this water source by pulling a pipe from there to our treehouse – if the treehouse is actually lower than the spring. Pray to the heavens that it is, I want water! If it isn't, well ... we'll have to figure something out. But we certainly need a pump at one stage or another. Still, now it's the rainy season (apparently) and I don't want to imagine what this place looks like in the dry season – or where we get our water from! I once walked down to the river just to get two buckets of water for a shower, and I tell you, it's a hell of a walk, down a steep hill overgrown with thick grass, and then, all the way back up! Well at least we'll all stay fit.
