2:50 a.m. discovered city water was back on!  Water was still off at 11 p.m.  Has been off continuously for 24 hours.  Have no idea when water was turned on. Filled with gratitude to God for this amazing gift.  Immediately turned on the washing machine. 

Woke Papa Jim who quickly dressed, grabbed a flashlight, and took off.  He's rushing outside to check out yesterday's repairs.  Went 48 hours without water.  Came back on 3 a.m. yesterday.  Slept through the event.  Guard not sleeping.  Discovered the water pipe coming into our property had finally broke.  Papa Jim has been faithfully reporting this to the water company for, oh I don't know, six months at least.  It's on their side of the water meter.  Their responsibility to fix.  Papa Jim fully qualified to do the repairs.  Could get in big trouble for mucking around with their stuff.  By the grace of God alone, water did not come back on full force and was only on for two hours.  Guard reports that it never overflowed the flowerbed where it is located.  Slowly saturated the ground, and then, thankfully, city water was shut off at 5 a.m.  

When Francis came to work yesterday morning, Papa Jim sent him off to the water company to report the problem and (hopefully) come back with one of their technicians.  Early afternoon he was back with technician in tow.  After assessing the problem, Francis accompanied the technician as he "ran all over town" looking for needed replacement parts.  (One does not give money to a stranger and naively say "bring back the change".)  At 5 p.m. repairs finished.  Discovered that while we are not permitted to do the repairs, we are obliged to pay for them.  Total bill came to 23.000 F (approximately $46). 

So that explains why Papa Jim's loving wife woke him at 2:50 a.m.  It is only when water is flowing through pipes that any and all leaks show up.  The urgency is to discover leaks and fix them before the water is shut back off.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I started washing the most urgent items in our mountain of dirty cloths, praising God every inch of the way for the absolute luxury of WATER!!!  While the washing machine was filling with water, I began filling our water barrel.  That was priority number two.  Papa Jim  said I shouldn't tell you all that we go through to get our toilet back in shape, so I won't mention it.  One does not discuss such things in polite company there in the Land of Plenty where you live and work and play.  Moving right along to priority number four, I began filling a large basin with water.  We recently discovered that we have a number of seldom used, though important items, that are moldy.  (We live in a rain forest, right?)  So I am finally able to soak them in vinegar water.  If (the BIG IF) we still have water two hours later, these items will be washed in the washing machine and come out the other side free of mold.  

I am currently washing the second load of laundry, Papa Jim is back in bed having done a temporary fix on the one leak he found, and we are brim full of gratitude to our loving Heavenly Father for His wonderful gift of WATER!  A group is coming to Shiloh today and all our water barrels are full.  Life doesn't get any better than this.