'Major' Inconvenience

The 'inconveniences' here compared to the Western world pose occasional challenges. Every so often the hot water decides to stop being hot. Sometimes there is no water altogether. Well, if you know me at all, showers are over-rated and I constantly search for an excuse to drink beer rather than water anyways. As far as electricity goes, its a sign if important buildings have imposing looking generators outside that look like they've been needed once or twice. Really, these aren't inconveniences at all, they are the side effects of being incredibly fortunate. The majority of the country, both inside and outside the capital, faces much more than 'inconveniences' when it comes to water and power.

I've been trained to handle the outages of internet, and the painfully slow internet when it actually is available. Remember, I was weaned on dial-up. The fact that my parents graduated from dial-up not two months ago may hint at a strain of Luddite somewhere in my blood... I was spoiled by living with a beer connoisseur and dating a fantastic cook. The roosters that crow early in the morning and the neighbor's dogs who bark incessantly throughout the night give an essence of farm life that isn't too far down the street. Each of these minor inconveniences are friendly reminders that I'm no longer in Kansas, Toto.

There is one thing, however, that drives me crazy.

The subtle afterthought that gnaws at my soul, saps my patience, and feels like some sort of Chinese torture trick ... is my sink. It has a hot water tap on one side of the sink and a cold water tap on the other side of the sink. Let me repeat that, which, to the casual reader, who may never have experienced such a monstrosity, may sound completely benign. On one end of the sink, there is one faucet that only spouts scalding hot water. At the far, far, opposite end of the sink, is the other faucet, out of which flows only frigid cold water. The water on one side is hot enough to boil pasta. The water at the other end causes goose-bumps. Have you ever tried to wash your face with such a device? It must be a riddle, or some form of a practical joke. You have to cup the cold water in your hands, add a dabble of hot water that is too hot to touch without any cold water, but the cold water is mostly gone from your hands by the time you have gotten it over to the hot water side of the sink - ah, as you can tell, its exasperating. Well, I would think it were quaint and kind of funny - if I hadn't seen anything like it before...


I know exactly where this absurd twist on a normal bathroom appliance it came from: England. I had the same idiotic sink in my dormitory room in England. Of all the perils of colonization, the double faucet sink has to be up there on the list.