the E-factor

Living in Egypt adds this special E-factor to life. It's hard to explain just what the E-factor is. But the following story gives you a glimpse of what this phrase refers to...

Our waterheater in the bathroom broke. We heared a loud bang and that was the end of it. It was a Christmas Eve without hot water for us. Christmas morning my mom handed me a bucket with hot water and a mug. That was my shower.

I gathered all my courage and sleepy braincells to figure out a way to use this water to it's max potential. As my hair needed to be washed I first tried dipping my head in the bucket, but it wouldn't soak all of my hair. I tried it the other way round... still didn't get all... untill the mug attrackted my eye. Hovering over the bucket to catch the water and recycle it I finally managed to soak all of my hair...

But that was only the start... rinsing still awaited me. Still more hovering over a bucket, dumping mug-fulls of warm water over my head... it was a lengthy process during which I vowed to cut my hair really really short. But after an hour or so my hair was clean. I really considedered that day well spent.

In addition to our showerless Christmas the slaughtering feast starts in a couple days...maybe tomorrow a plummer will come to fix the water heater... maybe not. Maybe after the feast. But I know this for sure: the E-factor creaps up at you unexpectedly. And you gotta sit back and laugh when it gets to ya.