Hmmmm? When did Brett find a house? Maybe that was one of his posts that disappeared in the black hole of the international internet. Sure sounds like the familar run-around one can encounter while dealing with untility authorities in a different country.

This wasn't really a major problem for me in Emdeber, Ethiopia, given the lack of such things delivered from any centralized authority. The running water was really walking water delivered by two students who went down to the river with buckets, boiled it up on the central fireplace, and poured the resulting chocolate liquid into the charcoal filter apparatus. Lighting was a Chinese kerosene pressure lantern, some of which had an unfortunate tendency to explode. The telephone was a mile away, but we all lusted after the operator, one Workabesh ("Goldflower"), so making a phone call was something one really looked forward to. Cable? I don't think so, although some folks had transistor radio's. Sewage facilities? Well, there was a nice little house out back, a miniture of the main house, round-shaped, encircled with bamboo, a center post with a thatched roof, a wooden throne inside and a bucket shower. The rent was relatively modest as well.

Hey, Brett, tell us some more about your house.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble