About coffee, um, I mean water....

The coffee blog post was conceptualized over nine months ago when a long awaited Moka pot arrived with a visitor from the US. Since then we've done multiple taste tests with various brewing techniques and probably (definitely) consumed more than 1,000 cups of coffee in our home. But lest we get ahead of ourselves, this time of year reminds us just how precious the water is that's required to brew said coffee. So as a prerequisite to writing about coffee, we'll explain how the water gets to us in the first place.

Nepal's climate (and just about every other aspect of life) is dependent on the South Asian monsoon. Rains arrive predictably in June and stay till September, driving the annual agricultural cycles. April and May, however, are the hottest, driest months of the year, bringing with them often severe water shortages throughout the region. Furthermore, due to contamination of surface and ground water by things we'd rather not mention, safe water is even scarcer. Add to this our weak foreign stomaches and, well, lets just say a clean glass of water has become one of our most precious, appreciated commodities. (So is albendazole, but that's a different post all together.)

So how does a household get clean drinking water? There are a few options, really. But since our necks are as weak as our stomachs, we don't carry our own water up from the local tap. Rather, we've learned how to truck it in. And pump it. And filter it.

Step 1: Call the water truck. Pray that they have both water to fill their tanker and fuel to reach your house. (The tanker's hose runs down our driveway, into our ground tank.)

Step 2: Wait as 7,000 liters of water fill your ground tank.

Step 3: Pump water up to the roof, where 2000 liters can (and should) be stored.

Step 4: Turn on the tap -- but don't drink it! (And please don't judge our dishes.)

Step 5: Again, multiple options here that include boiling, bleach, UV light, and others. We prefer a simple carbon filter to make our water safe for drinking.

Step 6: Finally! Poor clean, drinkable water into your coffee brewing mechanism of choice. More on this step soon....