Perhaps you are confused. When I said I wanted running hot water, I did not mean that you should take away our running cold water, especially if you do not replace it with hot water. Yes, that's right, we're out of water again. It vanished Saturday night, just a few hours after our guests arrived. Worse, the folks at Alavanca were on vacation for 3 days, meaning that we had no water for Christmas eve, Christmas itself, or the day after. Even worse, the normal place to get water from the community tank has incredibly long lines. Jocelyn and her boyfriend, Daniel, were staying in a hotel, so we took turns taking showers there to stay clean for the weekend. But now they have returned to São Nicolau, and we have lost that benefit. Still worse, we have dishes from a Christmas dinner for 7 in the sink, not to mention a nasty toilet, and no water to clean it with. And I haven't showered in almost 72 hours, but I actually don't consider that a big deal anymore. Oh well.

Nadia has just informed me that she spoke with the Alavanca guy today, and our water is not going to return until FRIDAY. He says its a good idea to keep a barrel of water filled for weeks like this. Yeah, thanks asshole, you could have mentioned this a) when we moved in or b) at least before the water ran out. We just asked Eugene, an American guy who has been living here a couple months on his boat, if he had any big rain barrels to sell, but he ran out. So, we can't actually get enough water to wash the dishes, let alone ourselves, until Friday. Great. Well, at least to flush the toilet, I will be walking to the ocean to fill up on salt water. That's free at least.

On the flip side, Christmas was great. Jon, Brady, Yasmin, Jocelyn, and Daniel were all here for 4 days to enjoy the loveliness of BV. We went to Mazurka Saturday night, and hit up François' place on the bay on Sunday. Daniel got a windsurfing lesson, but spent more time falling off the board than actually cruising. It's hard. I took it out for a spin as well, and I was surprised at how well I am doing in terms of not falling, already. At one point, I ended up right over a shallow reef where the waves break low but fast, and I actually caught a wave and took off. Scary for my 2nd time out, but fun. More importantly, I can now brag that I once spent Christmas eve windsurfing. On Christmas, Nadia cooked an amazing meal. We had 3 very small roast chickens, roast carrots and potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and of course several bottles of wine. It was very, very delicious. The day after, I took some people up north of here to try to get a good view of the island. Once I was actually there with everyone, I was reminded how very strange BV is and how much I take that for granted. It seemed pretty normal for me to climb a ridge for a view of the desert below, but because it was the first time I've done it with friends, I sort of noticed all over again that my island is not classically beautiful. Unless you're really into brown. But everybody seemed to appreciate the oddness of it.

So, quite the mixed bag these last few days. Food, friends, fun vs dirt, grime, thirst.