(yes, I stole the title from a Christmas song... I believe it's by Josh Groban)
Living here does something to you. Something positive. You begin to be thankful for things you never even noticed in the past. Like water. And sunshine. And electricity. And libraries. Imagine the sweet bliss of being surrounded by mounds and mounds of books and comfy couches.
Every time a sector of society goes on strike, everyone ends up striking (I'm not sure if it's voluntary or not) and they block all major roads and highways. Even the kids get a holiday from school when there's a strike for water and electricity. The latest strike resulted in less power cuts in the town. Yesterday I had a full day and night of electricity. Almost. We had almost 24h straight of electricity save 2 short 10min cuts. I was almost motivated to bake except I had a ton of computer work waiting for me and not enough butter. The town has increased hours of running water--from 6h to 10h. Despite the convenience of more hours of running water, squabbles over water taps still break out in the neighbourhood. Most homes don't have their own tap and the most they have is a storage tank. When there's running water, there is usually a mad dash to fill up your tank. High pitched voices at full volume over trespassing hoses that are hogging the running water ring out as early as 7am. Still, we're lucky to have running water at all, as opposed to well water. Well water is good, except at the school, it's pumped up into an open-air water tank and then pumped to another open-air water tank near the bathroom or near the kitchen. What's fun is when we have to scoop out decomposed leaves and other organic matter (I'm not even going to begin to speculate what that may be...sometimes it's just better to turn a blind eye) that have coagulated into slimy long green strips that resemble seaweed.
Sunshine. Without it, it takes 3-4 days to dry my clothes, and even so they feel damp. It's not like I can hang the clothes in the house and crank up the heater either. At the end, the clothes still feel damp and smell musty.
Electricity is nice when your 3G internet is finally working, but your laptop's batteries are drained. And it's good for plugging in liquid mosquito repellents when you sleep. It's also nice when you're flushing your toilet with a bucket, but you need light to see if everything flushed down or not.
To my knowledge there are very few public libraries, and in the limited time I've spent in the cities, I haven't heard of any or seen any. Books provided entertainment and fed my imagination from a young age. A common summer activity for my family was to visit the library, and we had our own mini-library of Chinese storybooks and Disney picture books at home. The children here don't even have 1 book for pleasure reading. When I go home, I'm going to hit the library & stock up on fiction! Then I'll pack my bags full of children's books and bring more stuff back for our reading time.
Living here does something to you. Something positive. You begin to be thankful for things you never even noticed in the past. Like water. And sunshine. And electricity. And libraries. Imagine the sweet bliss of being surrounded by mounds and mounds of books and comfy couches.
Every time a sector of society goes on strike, everyone ends up striking (I'm not sure if it's voluntary or not) and they block all major roads and highways. Even the kids get a holiday from school when there's a strike for water and electricity. The latest strike resulted in less power cuts in the town. Yesterday I had a full day and night of electricity. Almost. We had almost 24h straight of electricity save 2 short 10min cuts. I was almost motivated to bake except I had a ton of computer work waiting for me and not enough butter. The town has increased hours of running water--from 6h to 10h. Despite the convenience of more hours of running water, squabbles over water taps still break out in the neighbourhood. Most homes don't have their own tap and the most they have is a storage tank. When there's running water, there is usually a mad dash to fill up your tank. High pitched voices at full volume over trespassing hoses that are hogging the running water ring out as early as 7am. Still, we're lucky to have running water at all, as opposed to well water. Well water is good, except at the school, it's pumped up into an open-air water tank and then pumped to another open-air water tank near the bathroom or near the kitchen. What's fun is when we have to scoop out decomposed leaves and other organic matter (I'm not even going to begin to speculate what that may be...sometimes it's just better to turn a blind eye) that have coagulated into slimy long green strips that resemble seaweed.
Sunshine. Without it, it takes 3-4 days to dry my clothes, and even so they feel damp. It's not like I can hang the clothes in the house and crank up the heater either. At the end, the clothes still feel damp and smell musty.
Electricity is nice when your 3G internet is finally working, but your laptop's batteries are drained. And it's good for plugging in liquid mosquito repellents when you sleep. It's also nice when you're flushing your toilet with a bucket, but you need light to see if everything flushed down or not.
To my knowledge there are very few public libraries, and in the limited time I've spent in the cities, I haven't heard of any or seen any. Books provided entertainment and fed my imagination from a young age. A common summer activity for my family was to visit the library, and we had our own mini-library of Chinese storybooks and Disney picture books at home. The children here don't even have 1 book for pleasure reading. When I go home, I'm going to hit the library & stock up on fiction! Then I'll pack my bags full of children's books and bring more stuff back for our reading time.
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