Paying Homage To The Water Pump

Water is scared throughout the world. In the Yucatan, between constant maintenance to the main pipelines and/or politics, you can be without water anywhere from an hour to days. Unless you physically turn on your outdoor water spigot, to check that the city water is flowing, you are blissfully unaware of a water shut off until you find yourself with no water at all! Fortunately for us, it has been a temporary misery; but a good reality check none the less. We are conscious of our usage, conserving as much as we can and when possible, recycle used water back into the garden.

In the Yucatan, the water system is gravity fed. To move water from your underground tank to your rooftop tank, that supplies water throughout the house, requires a water pump. The water pump or "bomba", is the most sacred appliance in every home. In our rental house, the water pump has it's very own room that we refer to as the shrine! Homage is paid daily to the pump to ensure an uninterrupted water supply. A candle burns continuously, so the city water lines can always find the house. You may think these rituals are crazy, but I follow them faithfully, because I come from a family that is cursed with household water problems. The curse has trickled down from my parents to my 4 siblings and I. No pun intended. Here we are thousands of miles away from home, only to find that the curse has traveled with us!

I am awaken in the wee morning hours to the sound of rain. I get up to close the windows. How odd, it looks dry outside. Oh no! WATER! Maybe the rooftop tank is overflowing? I wake up my husband and together we head outside to have a look around. As soon as we open the door, we spot the erupting geyser. The city water connection (a garden hose) has come away from the house connection (also a garden hose). In good conscious, we cannot wait until daylight to make the repair. We need to reconnect these pieces now. Have you ever tried to connect 2 forces of running water? Having sleepy brains and not thinking clearly, the fact that we could turn off the city water supply never enters our minds. After several failed attempts, we are now soaking wet  and not in the best of moods, but by some miracle the connection is made. Now what do we do? We have no tools or hardware to secure the fit. Ah, but we do have duct tape! I run into the house to get the tape and stop dead in my tracks. On the kitchen wall, the wall I need to pass to get to the duct tape, is the biggest spider I have ever seen. I think it may be a tarantula! It is brown, fury and  about 3 inches in size. I can't go outside without the tape. But I can't seem to move my feet either. I have to do this. Quietly, I tiptoe past the spider, grab the tape, and run for the door. I hate to tell you this honey, but we have another problem waiting inside. "More water"? No, I think we have a tarantula! "You're kidding"? I wish I was. We wrap the connection in tape and  hope it will hold until we can get to the hardware store."OK, lets go inside and tackle the next problem". "Where is it"? It was right here and now it is gone...........

Roof Top Water Tanks

House - City Water Connection 

La Senora