oh water pump...

Last night i got a call from one of our neighbors who lives downstairs. she told me our water-pump is broken. what this means is that water can't be pumped into our tank...which means we might could run out of water if we don't get this problem solved sooner rather than later.

so i call the landlord. i hope he speaks english. when he answered it didn't seem like he did, although now after our second conversation i think he does...so i proceed in Bangla. it takes me about 3 mintues to communicate that i'm Beth's roommate and he's my landlord. i tell him the problem. we talk some more. finally we have this treasure of a conversation:

Landlord: did beth leave contact information?
Me: yes
L: Let me tell you what to do. Call beth. tell her what the problem is. then she can call me and tell me, because i can't understand you.

now...to me this is a really really bad plan, for multiple reasons...but primarily because beth is on vacation IN A DIFFERENT TIME ZONE 10 1/2 HOURS OFF OF THE ONE WE'RE IN!!!

so i decide to kick my Bangla into high gear and explain the problem.
he gets it.
says he's going to come today before noon to check it out.
i'll re-arrange my day - no problem.

then today happened.
today...oh, how to explain. i don't think i can. even if i explain everything that happened i don't think it will do justice to the frustration, and out-of-control-ness that i felt today. i also feel like if i told you everything you might think, "man, why is she making such a big deal out of that?! it wasn't that bad."

but seriously it was one of those days...where it feels like the whole city is conspiring against you.
Landlord calls around 11 to tell me that he's not going to come. i should call an electrician and have them check it out and then call him. he tells me there's one really close to my house (that's all the info...seriously?!?! that does me no good....how am i supposed to find this mysterious un-named electrician shop? much less get them to come to my flat and look at my water pump?!) that was the beginning of the end of my day.

wrapped up in the day were countless trips up and down my 5 flights of stairs (there are 84 stairs). a lock that i don't have a key to that i needed to open to get my water pump fixed. a call to an electrican...waiting 2 hrs for him to show up (he said 1 hr). and endless trying to understand what's going on and how to solve the problem in a language that i'm far from proficient in.

(sidebar: i did have a few really lovely conversations with my downstairs neighbors, and they gave me snacks and tea while we were dealing with the problem. they also have been my advocates. they know more than i do about the water pump, so they talk with the work-men and explain to me...they're more patient with my bangla....and Sarah sent one of the guys from the office to take a look at it too - which was really encouraging at a moment when i felt totally overwhelmed by the "broken water pump catastrophe of 2010.")

eventually the electricians came, got the lock opened, took the water pump and left with it...came back about a half hour later to tell me that it was really really broken. three separate things are broken, and that it wasn't going to be fixed until tomorrow around noon (i'll believe it when its installed and pumping) .

then...on my way home from language class, the metro wasn't working. and i still haven't been able to buy a plane ticket that i've been working on buying for the past few days.

feels like i accomplished nothing today. water pump isn't working. didn't get registered for the language class that i was supposed to get registered for. didn't get to sari bari...lots of things i didn't do today...

today, i give up, Kolkata, you win.

we'll try again tomorrow - it will be a new day.