roughing it

we are in the midst of another "african" experience. the construction on the road passing through our village has spread to the plumbing. we have grown comfortable with the system of going a few days with running water, a few days without; however, when a few dry days turned into a week, we started asking around to figure out what was wrong. apparently, along with road construction, the water pipes were being updated as well. this is obviously great long-term news, but for the present, it means no running water for 1 or 2 months (and if this is the estimate the government is giving, 6 months is probably more accurate). This means bucket showers with water carried up from the local river. The same river which is used for bathing/clothes washing/recreation/etc. there are no less than 5 villages upstream from us, the populations of each taking full advantage of the river. On the plus side, the water generally has some amount already in it by the time it reaches us.
On top of this, our electricity (which was minimal to begin with, our 1.5 solar panels generally only provided us with enough power to half-charge a laptop per day, or give 2 hours of light.) is out for the foreseeable future, as our driver, lawi, put his phone charger in backwards and blew something in the inverter out. all we gathered from his recounting was that there was lots of smoke.
This is not to say that we are suffering much. the bucket showers aren't too bad, and it gives us an excuse to go a good three days without really needing a shower. Plus, the lack of electricity does wonders to simplifying ones life; when its dark, we go to bed, when its light, we wake up. tho i am sure our tune will change after a few more weeks of this...