The water was last seen on Tuesday morning around 9:30 am. We knew they would be shutting it off for about two days for sanitizing the pipes with chlorine. Some parts of the city had it back within 30 hours. We are still waiting, really ready to flush the toilet without a water bottle, take a shower, wash the soapy taste off the dishes. It's hard to have a good attitude. Especially since they turned off heat to all the apartment buildings in the city 3 weeks ago. We still get into low 30s at night. We run a small space heater at night to keep warm. Most people, however, cannot afford a $50 electricity bill. We were told that the heat is turned off because of debts. This is a byproduct of socialized system: apartment buildings were constructed with one central heater that runs hot steam throughout the building. People get charged monthly for heat. It appears they never thought of a situation when people would not pay their monthly bill, whether because they couldn't afford it or simply did not want to. Nothing is going to happen if one person doesn't pay. It appears that many people figured it out. Now those who do pay have to live without heat. We have been told that water schedule is a result of similar circumstances. This time it's the city that owes the electric company.
On the positive side, we are thankful that we are able to buy disposable tableware. We buy it at the store now, not at the market. Also, Ukrainians have much higher tolerance for infrequent showers than their American friends. We are starting to fit right in!
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