Plumber Needed!

I recently had to call a plumber to come to our house.  When I opened the front door, I was greeted by a man with a friendly, white-toothed smile.  In his hand he was clenching a wrench and his other vital piece of equipment was attached to his vehicle... See Exhibit A.

Exhibit A

Did someone call for a plumber?!

As it turns out, it was an easy fix.  Clogged drain so it didn't require any high tech-fancy-shmancy tools.  His good ole fashioned wrench suited our problem just fine.  In fact, he didn't even have to unleash the power of that plunger attached to the back of his bycicle!  PHEW!  Hahaha!  However, twice this past week my maid has gotten shocked while turning on the water faucet in the kitchen!  YEP!  Called the plumber about that one, as well as, the ELECTRICIAN!  They couldn't find anything wrong with the sink even though I tried to explain to them that if there is an electrical current flowing on, near or IN my sink....THIS IS A PROBLEM!  They determined the problem was that my maid wasn't wearing her "slippers" (flip-flops) and so that is why she got shocked!?  Um.  Okay!?  But not really!  Hopefully, it was just a weird flukie thing and it won't happen again!? 

You see, things just operate a little differently here in India.  In fact, it is not uncommon to have a maintenance man knock on my door and hand me a note that reads, "From 2:00 pm - 7:00 pm  there will be no water as maintenance will be working on the pipes.  Thank you for your understanding."  Mind you, they are handing me this note at 

2:30 pm which means - 2:00 pm has already PASSED and I didn't actually get prior warning about anything, now did I?!  The reality of it all is that my water supply has already been turned off & the note informing me of such is actually a bit "too little - too late"   When I try to point this out to the gentlemen at the door, he politely bobbles his head from side to side.  Ear to shoulder.  Ear to shoulder.  Which means, "Yes.  I understand this but I am supposed to give you this note anyhow."  Fair enough.  It's not his problem.  He's just the messenger.  So, I in turn, bobble my head back at him in agreement and with this, he bows to me, turns on his heel and he's off to pass the word along to the next unsuspecting soul (more than likely....my neighbors!!). 

If we are lucky enough to get warned prior to them turning off the water - Salome & Shashi kick it into high gear and start filling buckets of water from the tap before the supply is cut off.  They giggle back and forth to one another at the ridiculousness of it all and say to me, "Filling buckets Ma'am.  We have to wash the vegetables.  We'll clean the floor, Ma'am!  Too much of dirty!"

Working on fixing the pipes!

Please Pardon Our Appearance.  Work in Progress!

I guess it goes without saying and I don't need a formal written notice that when this is piled onto the sidewalk - You should "Watch Your Step!"  ;0)  Gotta love it!