Last Saturday was a busy day. We had company for lunch and more company after lunch. Since I had been asked to work on a special project for the hospital on Sunday and Sunday is our laundry day, I needed to do our laundry Saturday night to get it out of the way. It was after 11 p.m. by the time I finished and got settled into bed. Tim was preparing for bed.
Just then we heard a loud explosion. We thought that it was outside at the construction site. Then, water began gushing from the four large vents near the ceiling in our living room! There were four large waterfalls in our living room. One was depositing its flow onto the sofa, another was dumping onto the floor near the TV, another onto the curtains and to the floor and the last flowing gently into all of our luggage that was stored on top of a large wardrobe, and making its way over the luggage and deluging the wardrobe.
Tim and I were struggling into our clothes as quickly as we possibly could. In our area, you are lucky if you have one electrical outlet in each room, meaning that you must have many electrical extensions to live here. We have at least six on the floor surrounding our desks for our computers and that’s just a start. So, Tim ran to unplug all the extensions and try to get them off the floor and save our computers.
It seemed that in just seconds the entire apartment floor was covered with two and a half inches of water. I was desperately trying to call for help but my anxious fingers had trouble pushing the right buttons on my mobile phone!! It seemed an eternity before I got someone. Our Dr. friend on the twenty-eigth floor came immediately and took a crowbar and broke a lock on a door in the hallway trying to find the valve to turn off the water. I also called our boss, the Director of Foreign Affairs of the hospital and he called a worker to come help us. I also informed him that I would not be able to work the next day after all!
