Hot water, a matter of life or death.

OK here some Costa Rican Bathroon trivia. . .

number one:
You can not, I repeat NOT, flush the toilet paper down the toilet.
It must be discarded in a wastebasket.

Simple Enough, Right?
Well with a house of four girls, it can be challenging.
But we have managed.

Number two:
The city can cut your water off whenever and for ever how long they want.
During the off times, they have a grace period between 2 and 6 am.
I have gotten us all to shower, wash our clothes, and wash the dishes between these hours.

Number three:
They do not, Again I repeat have hot water tanks for their showers. Ok this is a slight exaggeration of the truth, but not in our apartment. The water for the shower is heated by what is called a "widow maker"
And tonight I almost became its next victim.

Let me start from the beginning. When we were able to get water after we moved here, it was very cold. The widow maker heats the water before is it is being poured out on us. But we found a way to get it as hot as we could. . .if we kept flushing the toile when we were in the shower, it lowered the water pressure, thus making the water that came out really hot. Well after a few days of this, the widow maker started sparking and sputtering flames. We had a repair man come out and he assessed the situation. He said the flames were not problem.

Right no problem. Well all had been ok untill I was in there tonight. The water had been on for a few minutes as I was trying to get the warmest as I could possible get it. I turned my body to get wet and the thing went immediately cold. I mean come on. I called Dave to fix it he did, as soon as he shut the door it was cold again. He comes in again, this time he tries to adjust the thing, and sparks are streaming down.

Folks, I could have died. (not really. . .but humor me.)
I sure those pearly gates would have given me special recognition for dying a fiery wet death on the quest to the mission field!

I am tring to decide if should try another shower the next 2 weeks we are here?

I hope you are not taking yourself to seriously today.
Sometimes you have to laugh, or the tears will start to show.

Amy