Å komme til Caracas (skrevet 13.02.08)

"En tørr mottakelse"

Våre første to uker i Caracas ble ganske spesielle. Vi hadde allerede sett den leiligheten vi skulle ha så vi regnet med at det meste var i orden da vi kom med flyet fra Costa Rica. Firmaet (StatoilHydro) hadde også sett til at leiligheten ikke var helt tom ved hjelp av et enkelt spisebord med fire stoler, tillike enkle 2- og 3-setere, noen senger og noe porselen etc. Flott! Det var da vi oppdaget at vi ikke hadde hverken vann eller gass. Det vi opplevde videre er her beskrevet på engelsk, ettersom den teksten ble skreven for å brukes ved kontakt med firmaet.

A dry welcome

We arrived in Caracas on Saturday, January 19th 2008, in the afternoon and were met at the airport by our dedicated driver and car – a good start. He brought us to the more or less empty apartment and we could unpack and get ourselves installed. From then on we had a time that was dominated by the accessibility of water in the following way:

Day 1
Half an hour after arriving we noticed that there is NO running water in the apartment. (After another half hour we found out that there was no gas for cooking as well.) Since we didn’t look forward to a weekend without water we called our driver who helped us out. The water was simply not connected to the apartment, something that was quickly arranged as soon as he showed us where the valve was. However there was a small leakage under the sink and we closed a few valves there to isolate that. But we had water!

Day 2
We woke up and found that there was NO running water again. After checking that the water was really connected to the apartment (which we learned how to do the previous day) we had to ask for assistance from the company. Thanks to this help we found out two things: There was a new and temporary problem with the communal water and the apartment was equipped with an internal emergency tank. Due to the problems with the “water in the street” the use was limited to only 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes at lunch and 30 minutes in the evening. This scheme was also followed during this Sunday and the emergency tank helped us over the most basic needs.

Day 3
NO running water at all. The worst day.

Day 4
NO running water except for 3 x 30 minutes The plumber came and changed components under the sink in order to avoid further leakage.

Day 5
NO running water except for 3 x 30 minutes

Day 6
NO running water except for 3 x 30 minutes

Day 7
NO running water except for 2 x 30 minutes before it returned around 1700. Water again!

Day 8
A beautiful day – everything’s normal.

Day 9
After making the 1 year old Linnea sleep again at 4 o’clock in the night a visit to the kitchen revealed that there was water all over the floor and NO running water again! Apparently the hose to the dishwasher (which had not been used) had jumped out of its connection on the machine and a neighbour had disconnected the water to the apartment.. The hose used was a standard green hose for gardens and the connections were of the same type (“slangklemmer” in Norwegian, ref. picture). In addition the dishwasher feeding had no isolation valve. Since it was weekend we re-connected the hose at is was done originally, expecting to get the plumber on Monday.

Day 10
We noticed an odd sound in the middle of the night which eventually turned out to be the same problem all over. The garden hose had jumped off its connection again due to higher water pressure during nights. It was necessary to disconnect water from the apartment and there was NO running water Again!

Day 11
NO running water until the plumber had installed an isolation valve and a high pressure hose with proper fittings.

Day 12 – 14
Water as normal

Day 15
We noticed a small leakage under the sink and we closed the relevant valve there to isolate the leaking part, apparently the repair of day 4 was not good enough.