Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Rain and No WATER in Bjelava! (and a bunch of other parts of Sarajevo)
So I got home yesterday and I was about to cook the stinging nettles I brought home the day before. The thing with stinging nettles is while they are cleaner than spinach they still should be washed. This time of year they apparently don't get buggy, but later in the year they do. It takes a lot of water and you really can't touch them. Once cooked they taste like spinach made of velvet. I made some into a tea, it is used for your stomach, and I planned on doing Irish Nettle Soup. Well a whole shopping bag full of stinging nettles to wash and nothing like enough water in empty cola bottles, did not sound like fun to me, so I washed the garlicky tasting leaves, or rather some of them and a tomato, and cut up some suho meso instead. Less intense on the water. I do have some reserve in the hot water filled radiators, it is the only reason the place is still warm though, so obviously when I realized there was a problem I did not run hot water!
Basically the paper said the water would be off until 10 o'clock at night. There is a good reason, they are fixing a big water main and Bjelava is not the only area of Sarajevo without water. This morning it still wasn't running. I really was dreading the lack of water combined with a call from Nature!
Unfortunately that happened. It takes about four litres to really flush the toilet.
So After all the fun with no water I decided to get out of the house. Had to go pay the gas bill anyway, and no water. So I will be bumming around town and eatting out. I understand when the water needs to be out, this happens here when they have to fix some part of the system, but two days, or overnight is most unusual. If it has to be two days people ought to get more advance warning so that they can fill all their empty cola bottles and PLAN for two days of no water. It is bad enough for someone like me, but I started thinking about the dorms just down the road, the students who are in class all day and who perhaps don't have a stockpile of water. That is not good! Even my stockpile of water is not really enough for two days worth.
To make matters even more fun, it is RAINING!
I am going to put in a second ad for my class. One student seems to think it is fun to SMS me a lot. I didn't mind at first but he wants to start earlier, and I set the time on Sunday at 3pm. That is firm. So I did not even reply. I will reply later and say that class is at the agreed time 3pm Sunday and to bring a pencil, a pen and a notebook, and if he likes a small tape recorder. The other student stopped once they had the adress and directions. That student was from outside the neighborhood, so I gave bus directions. I should see if that student can recieve multimedia messages because I could actually FILM the approach to my street and place and send that. Or send a little hand drawn map. There are people who don't know where my street is who have lived in Sarajevo forever, because the name was something else before the war.
Anyway, two students isn't going to be worth my while so I need to get at least four more. I'd actually like abotu 8. There is room for 8. Each person who brings in another paying student is going to get a free lesson.
Basically the paper said the water would be off until 10 o'clock at night. There is a good reason, they are fixing a big water main and Bjelava is not the only area of Sarajevo without water. This morning it still wasn't running. I really was dreading the lack of water combined with a call from Nature!
Unfortunately that happened. It takes about four litres to really flush the toilet.
So After all the fun with no water I decided to get out of the house. Had to go pay the gas bill anyway, and no water. So I will be bumming around town and eatting out. I understand when the water needs to be out, this happens here when they have to fix some part of the system, but two days, or overnight is most unusual. If it has to be two days people ought to get more advance warning so that they can fill all their empty cola bottles and PLAN for two days of no water. It is bad enough for someone like me, but I started thinking about the dorms just down the road, the students who are in class all day and who perhaps don't have a stockpile of water. That is not good! Even my stockpile of water is not really enough for two days worth.
To make matters even more fun, it is RAINING!
I am going to put in a second ad for my class. One student seems to think it is fun to SMS me a lot. I didn't mind at first but he wants to start earlier, and I set the time on Sunday at 3pm. That is firm. So I did not even reply. I will reply later and say that class is at the agreed time 3pm Sunday and to bring a pencil, a pen and a notebook, and if he likes a small tape recorder. The other student stopped once they had the adress and directions. That student was from outside the neighborhood, so I gave bus directions. I should see if that student can recieve multimedia messages because I could actually FILM the approach to my street and place and send that. Or send a little hand drawn map. There are people who don't know where my street is who have lived in Sarajevo forever, because the name was something else before the war.
Anyway, two students isn't going to be worth my while so I need to get at least four more. I'd actually like abotu 8. There is room for 8. Each person who brings in another paying student is going to get a free lesson.
# posted by Katja R. @ 1:00 AM 
