Q: How do you clean everything in your apartment and get all the laundry done in one day?
A: Leave the kitchen faucet running while you go to work and when you come home the entire place will be flooded prompting you to clean and dry everything you own.
Sounds funny doesn't it? But it is the sad but true story of what did indeed happen to us on Wednesday. When we left for work in the morning we had no water. In fact we hadn't had much water at all in the past few days. We thought we had turned all the faucets tightly in the off position. Unfortunately the kitchen faucet got turned the wrong way. When the water came back it filled up the sink and since the pipe isn't very big it wasn't able to just keep running and draining. By the time we got home the water was covering the entire floor and running underneath the back door in our bedroom and draining through the balcony. It was a mess!
At first we just stood there frozen not really knowing what to do. Shane was speechless and stood there looking around in shock. I turned the faucet off and started surveying the damage. Then we started moving furniture out of the way. We tried calling our boss and landlady for extra supplies but they didn't have any. Then I started crying, had a mini breakdown and called my mom. After I was calmed down it was time to get to work. Shane went to the store and bought an extra mop and a squeegee. We moved everything out of the bedroom and living room so we could squeegee the water out the back door. Then we figured since the water was everywhere why not make sure the floor gets clean so we used bleach and water to mop the floors. After the floors were dry we put all the furniture back in place and took all the wet stuff out to the front balcony. The only furniture that was wet was the couch and chairs in the living room so we used the fan to dry them out.
Then we dealt with the wet stuff. We spread the mosquito net out to dry. The other damp things including our luggage that we stored under the bed was left outside to be put in the sun in the morning. Since our laundry basket had gotten soaked all our dirty clothes were now wet so we filled buckets with soap and water so they could be washed in the morning. Around 10:00 we were able to sit down, have dinner, do the dishes and shower. Then since we had water and weren't sure if we would in the morning we filled up all our water containers. Finally around midnight we were able to go to sleep.
We got up with the sun the next morning and got to work on the laundry. Luckily the water was running and kept up all day. We did about 5 buckets of laundry and had to hang more clotheslines in the front so we could dry all the clothes. We called our boss and told him we wouldn't be coming in to work because we needed to deal with our apartment situation. We were worried that if we put everything out to dry and left then we wouldn't be there to bring it in when it started raining, which we knew it would inevitably do - that was just our luck. We spread all the damp stuff along the front balcony. One of our luggage bags was being used to store clothes that didn't fit in our dresser and while they weren't wet they were damp so we spread those clothes out in the living room so they could air out. As predicted around 1:00 it started to rain. We moved everything in under shelter and put clotheslines up inside so the clothes could finish drying.
It continued to rain all afternoon and will probably keep up through the weekend. As I write this clothes are still strewn about the living room and hung up through the house. Our hope is that everything will be dry and ready to be put away this evening. We are a bit worried about the storms moving around out there. Jamaica is once again under a flash flood warning. Tropical Storm Beta is out there along with a vigorous tropical wave. We are worried the rain could cause the same effects it did last week when Wilma came through. We put the tarp back over our bed just as a precaution. Unfortunately, this has really dampened our plans to travel to Mandaville for a Halloween Party this weekend. Not only will it not be fun to travel in the rain but the road conditions that were already bad will just be worsening. There is also the chance that roads will flood preventing us from being able to make it home. Plus we won't be home to keep everything high and dry and I think we have dealt with enough wet stuff for this week.
I never knew water could cause so many problems - sometimes there isn't enough, sometimes there is too much, and sometimes it is all over your stuff! What an adventure!
-Kaelyn
Unfortunately we aren't celebrating since this is one part of American culture that has yet to work its way to Jamaica. We do have two candy filled packages on the way, one from each of our mothers. (But we did get a package from Kaelyn's Grandparents which contained about 100 lens wipes which although not as tasty as candy are very useful.) I suppose we will celebrate when our treats come. But in honor of the holiday we compiled a list of the top 10 things we miss about Halloween.
