The Hotel Room in Hosanna
There is one “western” hotel in the area, and we have a room in it. I haven’t caught the name of it yet. I’ll have to ask Michelle again. [It was called Hotel Hossanna as I discovered later.] It’s somewhat… interesting. Michelle told me it was only built a couple of years ago, and yet there are parts of it that are already falling apart. Our bathroom is a good example. The bathroom door no longer has a latch, so it’s good that Michelle and I are comfortable with each other. The toilet has had the tank cover and flusher removed so that you need to put your hand in the tank (not quite into the water) and pull up on the flushing mechanism to make it work. It doesn’t fall back into place, either, so once enough water has gone through you have to push the mechanism back down.
The shower is interesting, too, though I think it was made that way rather than deteriorating to this point. There is no bathtub, nor is there a shower curtain. There is a small step up to a slightly raised area of floor in which is a drain. (Thankfully, there is also a drain in the main part of the floor since it would be impossible to contain the water as you shower.) Above the raised section of floor, a thin pipe and shower head stick out of the wall, and a little ways below that are the hot and cold water knobs. A water heater is attached to the opposite wall, and a small light that sometimes comes on with a noise of various electronic parts attests to the fact that it’s doing its job…
Yet the shower that I took was rather less than satisfying. The water heater may be heating something, but whatever it is it doesn’t seem to be water for my shower. Make no mistake, the water that came out was ever-s0-slightly tepid, but it began as a trickle and stopped altogether when I was ready to rinse off. I had to laugh as I stood there and pondered my situation, and I was very glad that I had decided not to put conditioner in my hair! I waited for several minutes, hoping the water might come back on, but to no avail. Finally, I stepped down from the raised section of floor and stood by the main floor drain which was near the sink. I managed to rinse myself reasonable well by cupping water from the sink in my hands and dumping it over my body. Why was water still running in the sink, but not in the shower? Oh, heaven only knows!