It's the little things that count

It's been said that you don't realize what you have until it's gone...Over the past couple weeks, we've been reminded of those little conveniences that we have on the ship that we often take for granted...because for a brief time, those things were taken away from us. We have had issues with power outages, air conditioning issues, and most recently lack of water. There were some issues with our usual water sources coming in to the ship at the same time that our water consumption was at a record high...the result: water restrictions.


We were all informed on Friday that the water supply was low and that we should only take showers "if absolutely necessary" (that one was left for interpretation) followed by the water to the cabin showers being completely shut off on Saturday. Thankfully, a Sierra Leonian friend of mine who works in the ward picked up a couple bags full of drinking water packets for me (it was actually the result of a miscommunication we had, but it worked out quite well in the end). My roommates laughed when they saw all the water packets I came home with, but in the end they were all thankful because we got creative and poured it in the tea kettle and managed to still have make-shift showers. It kind of just felt like we were camping.
 A friend of mine recently shared with me about the water and electricity issues she's had living in a local apartment complex in Sierra Leone. She is from Europe, but has become familiar with Africa, as she has been working here for several years now. She shared that at one point, she and her roommates had to carry water up their stairs in buckets because the water lines broke. When that issue was fixed, they had power outages, with the electricity only working for a few hours each day. Hearing her share about those challenges with such a positive attitude reminded me that I have so much to be thankful for. Most days, I have air conditioning, clean water, and even wireless internet. That is much more than most people in Africa have.


The water crisis on the ship is almost over and lots of clean water has already been loaded. We can take real showers again (but only the standard 2-minute "ship showers of course!) and they will be filling the pool again soon. The paper plates and plastic cutlery have been put away and we can eat off of real dishes now. The crew galley is open again for all the people who want to bake and cook. Things are pretty much back to normal here on the ship. But, I think something has changed inside of many of us. We certainly have a new view of water, but we also realize that it's the little things in life that make a difference. And for those things, we are grateful.