More excrem...sorry, excitement!

I promise you, one of these days we'll actually tell you about our first week here, but the last few days have been so crazy you need to hear about them first. 

Two days ago as mentioned, we had the second half of our shipment show up and I spent all day unpacking and letting Lily (who is much better at organizing things) figure out where we would put it all when she got home from work. As Lily mentioned in her last post, we were out of water...and this issue continued for two straight days! I flagged down one of the sewage trucks (sewage and water trucks are indistinguishable except for the smell) and the driver told me the main water truck was broken...and the backup was also down for repair? This is fairly common I was told, which did not inspire much in the way of confidence. At least we got our sewage pumped. When I was talking to the driver outside, I was wearing shorts. Today I have many mosquito bites. Deet-based products are about as effective at repelling these bugs as air freshener, so I am going to use Febreze from now on, as it smells better. 

Yesterday was exhausting! I managed to get most of the garbage/cardboard out to the trash cans (which are 55 gallon drums in front of the house) and my legs got a great workout hauling boxes of clothes up our stairs to the bedroom. Around mid-day, the water truck arrived at our neighbour's half of our duplex, so I ran outside and begged them to fill us up. He obliged, but told me he could only fill 300 liters (our tank is over 1000) and since our sewage had been pumped the day before, the driver opined that our water pump was broken. Sure enough, I tried the faucet after he topped off the tank and we still had no water pressure. Lily placed a call to BLCS (Baker Lake Contracting Services, who pretty much do everything here) to have someone come repair the pump. 

Now for the "fun," and by that I mean irritating part - another sewage truck showed up an hour after the water truck. I told the driver we had been pumped the day before, but he said he would do it anyway. Turns out, our sewage was FULL! What the $@&(! did the truck yesterday do?? He pumped us out and the water was working fine. For those of you without a plumbing background, the same pump controls our water and our sewage (no contamination risk though). When the sewage tank is full, it sends a signal to the pump to shut it off to prevent overflow...and this also prevents water from being pumped. Empty the sewage, the pump starts again, and voila, water pressure returns. 

So we have water again - yay! The plumber from BLCS showed up later and we learned a little about how our water tank and furnace work, and he adjusted our shower to be a little hotter, so it was good that he came out. 

Back to the house - I think I unwrapped 1000 bowls and plates yesterday, but we finally got the house clean and most our stuff put away. Fast forward to 10pm, and the last 9 boxes arrived, so I have some unpacking still to do today, but the majority of the work is done. We are still missing our ficus tree though, so keep our fake tree in your prayers and hopefully it shows up soon.

I'm off to install a shower rod, but we will have more for you soon, including some video of the town. Talk to you later! 

-J