Please don't let it be the rainwater...

So two nights ago, our landlady came down to our apartment, took two of our empty water bottles, and told us that she would bring back some rainwater...so she came back after a few minutes with the bottles filled and wanted us to drink the rainwater to see if we liked the taste. There were a few things about this that we found perplexing. The first was that the rainy season is in the winter, which doesn't begin until around December. Second of all, their "rainy season" consists of about only four days of rain. So how was this water collected, and how old is it? Another point of concern is that we have to boil AND filter all our water that comes from the sink, both for drinking and for washing dishes. So my rommates and I put the "rainwater" on the counter, each of us making a mental note to separate it from the drinking water, but none of us actually did that. Yesterday, we noticed that the rainwater was gone from the counter, meaning it had been placed with our drinking water in the refrigerator...uh oh. So each time I pour myself a glass of water, I hope that it is not the rainwater! I am not sure how my stomach would handle that!
The issue of using rainwater for drinking leads into a much more serious issue...that of water shortage. I think I have mentioned this issue in a previous blog but wanted to add a little more to it. Our landlady told us that every time we want to use the washing machine, we need to go outside and turn on the hose to see if their is a water flow. If there is, that means we can use the machine. If there isn't, that means the water has run out. She said that she often has to wait to wash clothes, because their just isn't enough water. That got us thinking about our own water usage here. We have been very conscientious of limiting our toilet flushes and shower times, but we have been boiling and filtering the water from the sink to drink. One of my roommates brought up the good point that this is selfish on our part. We can afford to buy bottles of water, but haven't been doing so because we want to limit our usage of plastic, as recycling is basically nonexistent here. However, water shortage is much more of an issue to the people here than recycling. Water is a necessity, but it is also a luxury here. This is something I never thought about in the US. We always have a constant and abundant flow of water to use as we would like. Here water is scarce and is something that absolutely cannot be wasted.