Losing my sanity in India

Today is one of the days that I HATE living in India. There are some days when things are going well and I feel like life is fine and I am happy here. But on a day like today I just wish I could be like Dorothy and click my heels together and go home to Bristol.

First off, our water dispenser has broken so we haven't had drinking water from it for just over a week now (so I've been having to buy bottled water and stock up the fridge). Anyway, the dispenser is only two months old so I called up the place we bought it to ask them to come and repair it. This was about a week ago. There was an answer machine service with the message all in Tamil. So, I called one of the few people I know who speaks Tamil (our landlord's secretary) and asked her if she would mind phoning them up to explain our problem. She was very kind and agreed to do this for me. She called me back and arranged a time for them to come here to fix it. We agreed that at 3 o'clock on Thursday (today) someone would come over to the house and fix the problem.

So, I was out this morning with my friends and rushed back here at 2.45 to make sure I was here for the repair man. By 4.30, with still no sign of him, I called the secretary again. She called the guy and phoned back to say he was stuck on another job but would come within an hour. Fine - at least I know he's coming (that's what I thought). So, while I was waiting, I thought I'd do a bit of housework and general tidying up. I must've got carried away mopping and sweeping because the next thing I knew Penri was ringing and it was 6.45. No sign of the guy. So, I called the secretary again who told me that when she spoke to him he told her he was definitely coming and she was at home (not at the office) so I'd just have to wait for him. I said that was fine. I'd actually made plans to go over to a friend's house, which I then had to cancel. It is now 7.30 and there is still no sign of the repair man and I cannot ring him as he doesn't speak any English. Great!

In the midst of all the above happening, I put the washing machine on and was cleaning the kitchen when the water ran out! I figured it was an easy enough problem to fix so I went and asked Bala (thank goodness he's back) to pump some water up. While he was doing that I thought I'd better ring my friend to cancel our plans for this evening. As I went to ring her, the power all went off. No lights, no air conditioners and still no water!!

So, I laid down on the day bed in the lounge (as there's not much you can do when there's no lights and no a/c) and just waited. The longer I was waiting, the more stressed and down I was getting.

Anyway, the power came back on after about 20 minutes, then the water tank filled up (and the washing machine started up again), but still no sign of the repair man! Frustrating or what?!