It's Raining, It's POURING...

...The days are so boring!!! I think it is safe to say that "rainy season" is here! It has just been pouring lately. I woke up a lot Thursday night due to the storm and then on Friday we had no water. Ok, so I'm hoping that this post shows some personal growth that I've had since I've been on the island for 10 months. I was so so grumpy on Friday because I couldn't shower, I couldn't clean, I couldn't cook, I couldn't even flush a toilet! And, since it was still raining, I was stuck inside all day with nothing to do. Ryan was trying to point out blessings (i.e. our generator because the power went out several times) but all I could think about was that I wanted to take a shower and brush my teeth and go to the bathroom! Then it hit me how awful I was. Running water is a blessing, not a right. So many people living in Dominica (and all over the world) do not have running water in their homes any day of the year. I can't even go without it one day without feeling like it was the worse day ever. Why is that? I mean, I'm definitely not better than anybody and I don't deserve to have running water more than anybody else. So now I am really trying to see all of these things that I take for granted everyday as blessings to be thankful for and not things I am entitled to and will be ticked off when they are taken away. I said I'm trying to have that attitude...

Friday afternoon I went and bought a bunch of bottled water and then it hit me - the school has a water reserve. I thought it was worth a shot! I had not had a shower in too long and it looked like someone had sprayed PAM all over my hair (gross!). I had to wear Ryan's UT hat all day. I threw all my toiletries and some clean clothes in my bag and went to the gym on campus. I turned the shower on and a pitiful little trickle of water came from the shower head. YES!!! I was so happy! I was saying thank you prayers the entire time I was in the shower, which was about 40 minutes. When the water is coming out so softly, it takes a long time to get clean! In fact, it was coming out so slowly that it wasn't coming out at all...it was just kind of falling straight down, which meant I was practically hugging the back wall just trying to get the water on me. The water on campus wasn't even enough to flush a toilet, but it was enough to get me clean and happy! :) When Ryan got home from school that night we took some big jugs down to the river and filled them up so we could flush our toilets. We were SO happy to wake up Saturday morning to the sound of running water - one of the sweetest sounds there is! You may think I'm being dramatic, but if you ever go a few hours without running water, you will see how much you rely on it. Oh, and as a side note, I have never been camping but am very sure that I would not enjoy it.

Saturday was a great day! Ryan and I played tennis, went to the beach and went to the pool. He studied from about 9:30-2:00 and then we did all of the things I just mentioned in a 3 hr time span before he went to a TA session from 5:00-7:00. I picked him up from school at 7 and we went to Craig & Ralna's for Mexican food and games. We had so much fun! On Sunday after church Andrea and I spent hours making an anniversary cake for some of our friends. We actually found a picture of their wedding cake on Facebook and tried to duplicate it. I thought it turned out pretty good, considering we're not professionals! It started raining again yesterday and has continued all day today. The water turned brown last night so Ryan started refilling our jugs. We were very happy this morning that they had not turned the water off. I'm praying for a few dry days this week. I need to get out of this apartment and get some fresh air!