island oddities

a daily reminder in my sapphire condo bathroom

water is sort of a hot commodity down here in the caribbean. sure, the salty variety is just about everywhere, but there are no fresh springs or snowy mountain tops that i know of... so the only real freshwater available on these islands is either shipped in or collected straight from the clouds.

most houses in st thomas operate on cisterns which catch rainwater. public buildings, condos, and hotels usually have huge purification systems (which are expensive). when we lived on sapphire beach, we had the convenience of drinking water straight from the sink. granted, it made for a pricey utility bill and tasted like chlorine sometimes, but at least we could sleep easy knowing we weren't slurping up parasites.

now that we've moved to a house on the north side, our faucet water comes straight from the cistern. no purification involved. so to be safe, our options are to either buy water or boil it. buying water sounds like the obvious state-side solution, but it's not so easy to carry jugs of water home without a car. have i mentioned that st thomas is mountainous? walking up hills with groceries is no fun. and hitchhiking with heavy water in tow seems equally awkward.

so we boil. or, we try to.

it sounds simple enough, but you'd be surprised how strange and foreign the routine feels. before i can quench any sort of thirst, i have to fill a pot, wait for it to boil, wait for the boiled water to cool, refrigerate it, and then drink... and then i make a weird face and add drops of aloe juice to it because boiling makes the minerals in the water taste pretty bitter.

but 47% of the time, i actually ruin this simple process.

see, i usually put a pot of water on the burner and then get distracted and wholly consumed by something insignificant online long enough for most of the boiling water to turn into steam and leave the pot. and when i boil away half the water i began with, that already bitter water tastes more like bitter minerals and less like the water i thirsted for. such a failure.

the primitive act of making clean water does not mix well with my short attention span and technology. so next time i light the burner, i should probably unplug. and maybe even sit on the tile in front of the stove so that i definitely don't forget. although, i'm sure my brain could find a way.

yeah, that sounds like a lot of work. maybe i should just drink as much water as i can when i'm working on the boat and then call it a day. ha!