May, 2013
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Hard Facts for a Hard Life
We are all living in increasingly difficult times so we need to accept this and prepare ourselves to endure. We just cannot escape the ever increasing taxes or the high costs on food, fuel, electricity, water, etc. Irrespective of how much we earn, it is possible to spend it all. And no matter how small the pay is, it is possible to save some. For most persons, what we earn is never enough to cover all the expenses so we prioritize and then we prioritize some more until some of the items at the end of the list get burnt.
On the 1st of January 2013, NWC (National Water Commission) locked off water to our area in Westmoreland as they thought it necessary to supply only the tourist area of Negril. The total lack of piped water would continue for the next four months. During this period my wife would travel with some five gallon pails in her car and which she would take back full of drinking water from the town of Savanna-la-mar (she had to do all the lifting). I work work out of town and is only home on weekends. On most Sunday mornings for that period of time, I would put a couple of drums in the back of a pickup and take them to a spring where I would fill them with buckets for washing purposes.
For the entire four months period, my wife and myself along with my last daughter would hand wash all the dirty clothes. This activity would occur on a Saturday or a Sunday morning. The important revelations in all this are as follows:-
1) Things sometimes have to be removed forcibly for us to understand and agree with God or our brethren.
2) There can be much financial savings if we remove a particular thing from our list even if we think we can’t do without it (during the period we saved on water and electricity)
3) In the coming years, we have to decide what to give up or what not to buy so as to enable us to function better, we have to take the tough decisions.
4) More of us need to start cultivating food stuff for consumption.
Father I pray for people in this time, in this hour, for strength and courage, in Jesus Christ’s name, Amen.