We had started the homeward bound journey early in the morning
and after traveling by land, sea and air hauling our heavy baggage through
jetties and airports, were quite exhausted. The usual ticketing troubles caused
by the reservation errors and many other mishaps that we are destined to have on
our return journeys, just to take the thrill of coming home, haven’t been very
helpful either. On the way from Katunayaka airport, too, I had to get off the van we
had hired airport taxi service, so many times in search of a 5 liter bottle of
water. It was past midnight when we reached home as usual. After the taxi
departed leaving us home, we hauled the bags into the sitting room.
The lights were working but the faucets were dry. This
wasn’t unusual and all I had to do was to prime the water pump filling the
suction line using the last bit of water left in the overhead tank through the
special plumbing I have made just for that purpose. In the worst case scenario
I have to go to the well, bring a bottle of water and use it to prime the pump.
I used the LED rechargeable torch we had brought with us to
walk through the garden overgrown with weeds and covered with layers of dried
leaves. While my wife was dealing with the spider webs and dust inside, my son
helped me to deal with the water problem.
Using the water from the overhead tank didn’t help because
there didn’t seem to be any. So, I went to the well and brought a bottle of
water and started filling the line. Unlike other times the whole bottle of
water just disappeared gurgling down the pipeline and never topped up. Five or
six 5 liter cans of water later, we decided to use a huge Sheetrock bucket to
bring the water. Hauling the bucket from the well was a killing job even though
both my son and I were lifting the bucket from two sides. But just because we wanted
to get the job done so badly, we ignored the soggy shoes and muddy water
creeping up our jeans legs.
We poured the contents of the entire bucket into the
waterline and watched it disappear making gurgling noises. Anyway we switched
on the water pump and anxiously waited for the noise of water pouring into the
overhead tank. No such luck. The pump was running dry. We switched it off
fearing a burnout, running it dry.
“Shall we bring one more bucket of water and try?” I finally asked
my son who as disgusted as me.
“We have to get the water running somehow, don’t we? Okay
let’s go,” he said.
Bringing another bucket of water was a nightmare but we did
it. Not only once. We hauled bucket after bucket of water from the well and
poured into the waterline. It never filled up as expected. I suspected the foot
valve must be faulty and the water was pouring back into the well. Finally we
brought another bucket of water and left it in the bathroom because we couldn’t
even flush the toilet.
Wait a minute! I had a priming point under the driveway.
Because it used to get damaged by vehicle tires, especially those of tractors
and trucks which brought in building materials those days, I had buried it under a
layer of concrete. Maybe a leak has sprung there. I got the gardening tools and
started digging the driveway while my son shone the flash light beam. After
many failed attempts, I managed to dig up the pipe line and find the place
covered with the layer of concrete. I
hammered away at the concrete and after a long struggle found that the joint
was dry.
At about 5 o’clock in the morning, after struggling to get
the water for so many hours, we just flopped on the beds with sweat, dirt and
mud and tried to sleep. We had tried to boil some water from the 5 liter water
bottle and make some tea, but found the gas cylinder was empty.
I woke up in one hour as this water problem was bothering
me. I woke up and tried to fill water one more time. After dawn, I went to two
neighbors who were awake now and borrowed two lengths of garden hose to attach
to my garden hose to get water from the front house faucet instead of manually
hauling water from the well. At the same time bought a gas cylinder from the
hardware store next door. Then we boiled some water and managed to have a warm
cup of tea.
The guy who is renting the front house saw me and asked what
the problem was. When I explained he said, “Bro, I think your pipeline could be
damaged in the middle.”
“No way? This is a buried along my driveway. It is impossible
for that to get damaged. And I checked it digging it up. It sure must be the
damn foot valve.”
He wanted to say some more, but obviously changed his mind.
He must have been listening to our struggle last night.
I took a long pole and shook the foot valve underwater. Then
tried to fill water this time with the garden hose connected to the faucet of
the front house. Still the water gurgled down the pipe and disappeared. I bent
into the well and tapped the pipeline to make the ball valve drop down in case
it was jammed. The tried again. The same result.
Now my plan was to empty the well, get into it and check and
replace the foot valve. I went to the neighbor who rents submersible water
pumps. The sign on his door said OPEN, but he was still going through his daily
religious rituals prior to business. I
walked back home intending to return a little later.
I shook the foot valve one more time and tried to fill the
waterline. Same result! Frustrated, I was walking along the driveway back to
the well when I noticed the patch of water in the middle of the drive. Well as
it had rained the previous day there was water on the drive, but this pool of water
was different. I just thought it was growing. I squatted down and watched the
edges of the pool of water. Hell! It was growing. I was overwhelmed with relief! At least I
found the cause and I don’t have to empty the well!
This place was a few feet away from the place I dug in the
night. And I started excavating with a lot of care. And the hole I dug started
to fill with muddy water. The water, we have been feeding the pipeline with all
night. And what I saw swept me off my feet. The pipeline was severed in the
middle. Actually a piece about a foot long was missing. No wonder the water never
topped up! And What I saw next made me throw a fit. The other end of the
pipeline was neatly blocked with an end cap!
Then I understood. The neighbors have cut down a tree and a
falling tree or a stub of a limb has pierced the earth and severed the pipeline.
Why the hell nobody told me and save us all the back breaking labor we had last
night? Actually the guy next door knew this but didn’t want to get involved.
And why the hell didn’t they repair the damage and save us all the trouble?
I walked to my brother in law, who is always there to help.
He was back from night duty and was sleeping. The thrill of seeing me didn’t
last long when I explained the situation to him.
“Oh my god!” he said. “Yes, they cut down a tree and a trunk
fell on to your driveway severing your pipeline middle. Actually a stub of a
branch had pierced the ground. I was the one to fix the end cap. I actually
intended to repair that, but I forgot!
He volunteered to come with me to help me. Together we
cleaned the two ends and with an extra length of pipe and PVC Glue and managed to
mend it.
After that I watched the water filling up the line and top
up and when I switched on the water pump the note changed and it started to
pump water into the overhead tank, the sound of which was sweet music to our
ears. I waited eagerly to see the tank fill up and overflow into the garden.
I opened a faucet and listened to the sweet music the water
made splashing the sink singing Welcome home!
Epilogue:
I looked around the garden. The garbage pit was full
of junk. There were broken glasses neatly packed in poly-sacks and left on my
toilet pit. There were broken old fashioned four foot florescent lights which we don’t
use. Windows glasses we don’t have, glassware we have never seen, perfume
bottles we never used. And to top it off, I had huge pile of coconut branches
piled up near the staircase from a tree that was cut. And we have no coconut
trees. Anyway it was easier to remove than the tree trunks they had piled up
last time when we came, which gave us a hell of a time to return to the proper
owners. It was nice to be back anyway.
Simulblogged in මගේ ඩෙනිම in Sinhala Language.
