Picture worth a thousand words...

They say a picture's worth a thousand words. I work very hard to make sure that my family is safe and while here that means making sure that we avoid the local tap water as much as possible. I wash fruits and veggies in water that has a small amount of bleach in it. I wash the dishes and then sanitize them by rinsing in bleach water. Friday I was able to SHOW the kids(and remind myself)why I go to these measures. I put a load of laundry in and the water only came out as a trickle. I began trying to figure out the problem and when I removed one of the hoses at the back of the machine I found it. There is a small blue filter that filters the intake line of impurities. This is what it looked like when I removed it:
It was full of dirt and 'gunk' of unknown origin. I showed it to the kids and told them that the washer had only been in use for four days so, "THIS is why we don't drink the water here." I cleaned it out and replaced it and the washer worked fine. This morning as I started another load of laundry I noticed the water was again only trickling out so I removed the filter again. Here's what it looked like this morning: There had only been two loads run between the cleaning of the filter so I'm not sure what this means. Perhaps for some reason there was extra sediment in the water yesterday or maybe cleaning the filter will be a daily routine. Either way, it's a good reminder for me and the rest of the family. Bottled water to drink and bleach water for food and dishes.

It's a beautiful day in La Palma. We've only had showers of rain today. The thermometer on my fridge says it's 77 degrees and 80% humidity. Our family ventured out to grab some lunch and to pick up some items for tomorrow's lunch. (We're having taco salad in case you wondered...just wishing I had some packets of taco seasoning!) While out we passed a group of Americans at one of the artisan shops and were kind of excited to talk to some "English-speaking people." They were a tour group from South Carolina and had come up to La Palma for the day from San Salvador. Jose has gone to San Salvador and I'm excited to see if he was able to get some or all of the items on my list. :)

Love, Lori