I'm an aunt! I'm an aunt! I'

Wow. My baby brother now has his own baby. I cannot believe it. I am so happy and excited for him and Emilie. I just cannot wait to meet Elona. (http://cherisecherisson.canalblog.com/albums/elona/photos/59199133-dscn0337.html).
Oh, yes, and being an aunt in no way means I want to me called Aunt Molly. It merely means I have a beautiful niece.

In other news- the water has come back on, the laptop is now completely and utterly destroyed, and the black out are becoming more frequent. Work is going well and is really interesting. We had our open house last week to discuss the regional plan and host an open forum for different sections of that have strengths and potential. As a guest surprise an iso-polyphonic group came to sing traditional music which was fabulous. Now, out of all projects meeting the UNDP criteria the projects the technical team thought were the strongest will be presented to the region. Some interesting proposals included the creation and formation fof a regional park, a cinema and recording the iso-polyphonic music native to the region.

Added Bonus

So as those dedicated followers to my blog know, I've been without water for 12 days now. First I wasn't so bothered. I thought it was temporary, plus I had stored plenty of water for this sort of thing. Additionally, in those first days it came in sporadically (sporadicness is only consistency i know). However, for the past six days, basically since that post I have had nothing. I mean nothing. I have left my taps open, put buckets under my shower but the water is gone. Nothing. Meaning creative bathing is not even an option, nor is dishes or well- I spare you the gory details.
Now I have the added bonus of no electricity. It went out about 3 hours ago. So, you ask, in a very logical way, how are you posting this? After 3 hours of reading my flashlight in my waterless apartment I need to leave. I was also curious about the extent of the black out - was it country wide like the last one or my community. So I went out, bought some water, returned, went out again and found out that my favorite internet cafe has a very loud but effective generator. Hence, here I am

Sporadicness is the only consistency (I know that's not a word)

Spotty electricity and water have finally made things really difficult. Until now, I was able to circumvent, create solutions, and use the shower at the gym (ever so smart, they have their own very large generator and huge water tank). I simply waited for the sound- the cruk uhk ogh- of the pipes opening, tanks filling to know that I had that hour or so in which to do my dishes, fill my bottles and hopefully squeeze in a shower.
However, getting anything done - whether it be at home or work- is quite challenging. My counterpart, the head of the office, had to actually leave today to go to an internet cafe because there were emails to write and no electricity to be found. We're discussing sharing a generator with the organization next door. We haven't been able to sit down and have a lengthy discussion in days due to constraints of figuring out how to work around when electricity shows up.
Electricity has already eaten my computer and several hard drives. In fact, I think I'm going to end now as I think suspect I hear the sound of water.

Creative Bathing and Electrical Outages

Quick post before I run to my first meeting with UNDP updating you concerned person on the water situation before my electricity goes out (again).

Going on day 6, however have done some investigative research (i.e. spoke to all my neighbors) and found out that no one has water because the municipality is doing repairs on the main water lines. However, the city has not yet made a public announcement. Thankfully, I honed my bucket bathing technique while living in the village but haven't exactly bought a huge cauldron for my city apartment and tiny two burner stove top (which has its own room). Unfortunately, this happened the week of my new job. Needless to I've invented some pretty creative bathing techniques and am really happy that someone had to foresight to invent deodorant.

Also received a text from our safety and security officer that OSSH, the Albanian energy company, will be running black outs across the country today. But since my computer that my father generously bought for me as a going away present two days before I left has already been completely and utterly destroyed by the inconsistent energy here, I'm not sure what harm is left to do. I guees this would be an excellent time to stock up on batteries.

Challenge

I challenge you to cook dinner or any meal or actually go a full day without running water. Yeah right. You read the part about the washing machine and thought I had it so easy. Well, usually, its not to bad. However my "bit of a problem" is now turning into a rather large problem. Four going on five days with no water is proving to be a bit of a challenge. Thankfully, I stored water the last time this happened.
I will say, though, it has taught me about myself. I had no idea how often I washed my hands or turned on the sink until this happened. Turns out, quite frequently. Which is refreshing- sort of. I'm not as big of a germ container as I thought I was.
Well- if any of you are brave enough to accept the challenge I'd love to hear how you figured out how to do the dishes or wash the vegetables. Life is for sharing, right? Back to work.