Cold water on a hot day can feel and taste so good. Ironically enough, that same temperature of water on a mild fall day for a shower, can be nothing but painful! As I was washing dishes recently, I noticed the water just wasn’t getting hot. After putting on my P.I. hat and investigating all the other water sources in the apartment, I discovered there was no hot water to be found. After a call to have it checked out, I received disappointing news that the water heater needed to be replaced. No hot water for a while. Bummer.
I wonder why I couldn’t have fixed something that was easy to clean up. Something like a cold cut sandwich and chips would have been great. Nope. No chance. I had just fixed tacos. Did you know that trying to get hamburger grease washed out of a skillet with cold water is almost as hard as rubbing white off rice? If you didn’t know that, now you do.
In the morning, that cold water (notice I didn’t say cool water...it was COLD) hit my face and hair like a thousand pins. I wondered why I had a head ache as I was getting ready. Maybe it was brain freeze that started from the outside and worked its way in? With all that cold water, I couldn’t help but thinking of Africa again. I have traveled on a few trips to Africa where hot water for a shower was a rarity. The picture above is a classic sight in Kenya. It is the shower head in so many showers across the land. Just having a shower is a luxury. This is really nice, because this is kind that provides heated water.
Notice the wires dangling down from the water pipe? Oh yes, those are wires and are providing electricity to the box for shower’s inhabitant standing in water. Why not, right?! The wires go to a little box located on the shower head. This box heats the water right before it comes out. This is the most cost effective way to provide warm water to shower in. To be honest, I have had the pleasure of showering dozens of times with one of these contraptions hanging from above. Out of all of those shower head heaters, I think maybe one actually had heat. That was only after I jumped up and hit the box a few times to convince it into cooperating.
I think the water heater blowout is really interesting. Less than 24 hours before I lost my beloved hot water heater, I had muttered the words to someone that sounded something like this, “I miss Africa so much. I miss the people, the children, and the land, but I also miss something big…living more of a simple life.” I guess I didn’t realize God was listening to me in that moment. You want to know something really strange? I miss those shower heads in Kenya. They may not provide the most comfortable water in the world, but the simplicity of the life they represent is something I do miss.
Maybe He timed the water heater’s bucket kick to remind me of all those who don’t have what many of us take for granted. He works like that, you know. Interesting.
I wonder why I couldn’t have fixed something that was easy to clean up. Something like a cold cut sandwich and chips would have been great. Nope. No chance. I had just fixed tacos. Did you know that trying to get hamburger grease washed out of a skillet with cold water is almost as hard as rubbing white off rice? If you didn’t know that, now you do.
In the morning, that cold water (notice I didn’t say cool water...it was COLD) hit my face and hair like a thousand pins. I wondered why I had a head ache as I was getting ready. Maybe it was brain freeze that started from the outside and worked its way in? With all that cold water, I couldn’t help but thinking of Africa again. I have traveled on a few trips to Africa where hot water for a shower was a rarity. The picture above is a classic sight in Kenya. It is the shower head in so many showers across the land. Just having a shower is a luxury. This is really nice, because this is kind that provides heated water.
Notice the wires dangling down from the water pipe? Oh yes, those are wires and are providing electricity to the box for shower’s inhabitant standing in water. Why not, right?! The wires go to a little box located on the shower head. This box heats the water right before it comes out. This is the most cost effective way to provide warm water to shower in. To be honest, I have had the pleasure of showering dozens of times with one of these contraptions hanging from above. Out of all of those shower head heaters, I think maybe one actually had heat. That was only after I jumped up and hit the box a few times to convince it into cooperating.
I think the water heater blowout is really interesting. Less than 24 hours before I lost my beloved hot water heater, I had muttered the words to someone that sounded something like this, “I miss Africa so much. I miss the people, the children, and the land, but I also miss something big…living more of a simple life.” I guess I didn’t realize God was listening to me in that moment. You want to know something really strange? I miss those shower heads in Kenya. They may not provide the most comfortable water in the world, but the simplicity of the life they represent is something I do miss.
Maybe He timed the water heater’s bucket kick to remind me of all those who don’t have what many of us take for granted. He works like that, you know. Interesting.
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