Living without Water and Electricity: The Upside!

March 24, 2010
I’ve come up with a list of the top reasons everyone should live without water and electricity at least once in their live. Hope you enjoy!
1) Living without electricity is cheaper on the power bill. Really, you pay way less when your power’s off half the time!
2) Living without water is cheaper on the water bill. I think we pay around 55 rupees (less than one dollar) a month for water.
3) You learn to be incredibly careful with your time. You wake up in the morning thinking, now when should there be power today? What do I need to do during those precious few hours?!
4) You build lots of muscles for free hauling water up the stairs while trying not to use the toilet at the same time. No gym necessary, and the more times you use the toilet during the day, the stronger you’ll become!
5) No power forces all the children to leave the TV room during the holidays for most of the day. It’s good for them to get some fresh air!
6) Everything’s more romantic by candlelight- dinner, studying, using the toilet. Ok, maybe not that last one, but it is kinda fun to be reading by candle light. I just pretend I’m on the old west frontier with my covered wagon parked out front!
7) You pray for heat to melt the snow so more power comes fastly (that’s an English word in Nepal, really.). Of course, with that heat comes sweat and stink, and there’s no water to wash, so you learn to really appreciate everyone’s bathing days!
8) That said, bathing is overrated, and if you have no water to bathe, then you use that time for other things. Like moaning about there being no power and water.
9) It’s rather humorous to see children RUNNING up the stairs with a bucket of water sloshing this way and that in a desperate attempt to make it to the toilet on time!
10) You become INCREDIBLY efficient with the little water available. For instance, my little handwashing water becomes foot washing water after it’s been used and then it becomes toilet flushing water. It’s called recycling ;).
11) When the power’s out in the evenings it becomes a “forced curfew,” allowing your body to get that much craved sleep as you may as well go to sleep at 9 since, well, that candle’s about to finish anyway!
12) You start having dreams about going on cruises with friends- on oceans of drinkable water... you dive in and just start drinking and drinking and don’t have to worry about saving some for later because, well there’s a whole ocean of it!
13) And last but not least, you’re just that much more thankful for those times with power and water! And you definitely won’t take them for granted again...