The pump wars

So the water pump in my compound went bad yet again. This time, it occurred at the weekend (while I was away) two Saturdays ago. M was not quite coherent in his explanation of what happened, whether it was a power surge or low current that caused the damage, I don't know. But all that does not matter. What matters is that we have been without running water since Tuesday the 18th when the water reservoirs finally ran dry.

As I told y'all earlier, there has already been a battle between Mrs M. and Mrs S. over water rights (kind of like Egypt/Sudan and the rest of the Nile Valley). Two mornings ago, I heard the missus in the other flat (by the way, she is Mrs. P) shouting about the water situation. Who she was shouting at, I have no idea.

This morning finally, yours sincerely got involved in the pump wars when P. accosted me as I prepared to leave for work. He asked why we haven't fixed the pump, but forgot to ask how he would contribute to fixing it, and also forgot to mention that he hadn't paid for the last fix. So I let him have it.

Full disclosure here, I lost this skirmish. You see, he accosted me with a surprise light infantry charge which I quickly repelled with some RPGs. Boosted by my good response and his quick withdrawal, I confidently went on the offensive using just same RPGs. What I did not take into consideration was that he had armour in reserve, of the mechanized variety, and when she let rip, I retreated hurriedly and took serious cover. My ears are still ringing from the heavy artillery barrage I had to withstand this morning.

Mrs P.'s mouth is something else...

You see, when I noticed that the pump was bad, I had approached M. again to see how we could fix it. Apparently he had taken a hit from Mrs P., so he is in no hurry to fix it being that P. has still not paid his contribution from the last time. S. has not mentioned the issue either, but then again he has quite a few kids and two house-helps who march up and down in the afternoons with buckets and jerry-cans, so what's his business? The fallout of that conversation with M. was that I got the phone number of his mai ruwa, so whenever I need new supplies, I call the guy and he brings me some.

I reported this state of affairs to my little lady, and she took the side of M. on this one. She said, "M. has figured these people out correctly. If you fix the pump for them again, they will take it for granted that you will do it all the time. We don't have children yet, so we can ration our water usage. Whenever they are ready for equity, we will bring our contribution to repair the pump." This morning's event proves that both she and M. are right.

S. and P. are great examples of one of the big problems with the country on a macro level. We have too many free loaders who simply refuse to take possession of their environment and the things in it. We have cases of transformers going bad, water works running down, roads getting spoiled, public utilities going to waste, simply because they belong to 'government'. But if they are repaired, these same people want to come and make use of them for next to nothing. P.'s question this morning confirmed it all.