Water, water, and more water

Last Friday, we had a man scheduled to clean our water reserve tank. We had been running our faucets trying to empty the tank. It is not a huge tank, but it drains through a small pipe and it is gravity fed so that the pressure is not great. Normally it is not a problem, it only takes a long time if you are trying to empty it. Gustavo, the man who is cleaning the tank, called at 9:30 am to ask if he could come the next day. Of course we said that would not be possible as we were already emptying the tank. He finally showed up at 11:00 and started working. As the tank was not totally full he decided, with Jason's help, to empty the leftover water by bucket onto the roof to the side of the tank. That roof runs down to a pretty large drainage pipe and from there to the street. That roof also just happens to be the roof for the pantry and laundry room. Everything was going well and as Audrey had finished her school, I was planning the work out for next week. I heard the kids saying, "Wow, look at this water." I didn't think anything for a while, but finally I decided to check it out. When I did, I found the pantry and laundry room filled with water. The water must have gone under the roofing tiles since it was coming down so fast and with so much force.

I had a shelving unit that was covered with water. On those shelves were all of my cookbooks, toilet paper, paper towels, cereal, and other small appliances. Thankfully most everything was fine. The cookbooks just had to be hung dried. The cereal was still in its packaging and therefore was not ruined. The toilet paper and paper towels were mostly dry, but I discovered when checking them that they were eaten with termites. Needless to say Honduras has a termite problem. When the first rain falls every year the termites leave the trees and search new areas to eat. They are already in the pantry ceiling, but I was shocked to find them in the paper products. Thankfully they are not in the house. Our other house had a lot of termites. If we ever own our own house we will call Terminex. They have them her in Honduras and we have friends who use them and say the do a great job.