Lesson in conservation

Never have I been so excited about rainfall. I woke up yesterday morning, turned on the tap to brush my teeth and nothing happened. I could hear the water trying to make its way out of the tap and could see the little droplets forcing themselves out until there was nothing.

Before we moved into the house, the previous owners mentioned how big their cistern is. ‘We never run out of water. We’ve had to turn on government water a handful of times in the [27] years we’ve had this place.’

Really? We’ve been here for seven days and we’re already looking at what we think is a tapped cistern. Ugh.

 I think I mentioned this in a previous post, but even a few short months in Anguilla has taught me about conservation in a real-world context. I’m from California and moved from San Francisco so I find that compared with many Americans we’re pretty green. Conservation and environmental awareness are beaten into every San Francisco resident as a rite of passage. I always separate my compost and trash from recyclables and try to limit my showers. Even so, the water was always there, so the urgency wasn’t quite as great.

Beyond not being able to brush my teeth or shower in the morning, I found myself in the kitchen turning on the tap to wash my hands, wash dishes or pre-wash veggies – no luck.  

The rain came pouring down yesterday afternoon and we couldn’t have been more thrilled to hear the pitter-patter of water drops on the roof. Such a reality check for someone that complains about not liking the rain. It’s easy to complain about gloomy days and rainy months when rainfall doesn’t seem to directly impact your day-to-day life. When the ability to maintain a clean household hinges on whether or not there’s a fair amount of rain, you really begin to understand the importance of conservation and where rain dances came from.

I should note that it turns out that we weren’t really out of water. Despite the heavy rainfall we still had no water coming out of our taps. Our pump ended up being the culprit but we still were faced with the same issue, so I think we’ve learned to truly value water and electricity living here. I’ve never been so excited to wash dishes.

xoxo from Anguilla,