I'm Sure Azeri Plumbing Is Pretty Simple to Figure Out

Last week was busy. It began Saturday hosting a brunch full of Americans and Azeris. Sunday, my friend Emily visited for 4 days and Wednesday I hosted all the surrounding TEFLs for dinner and drinks and brunch the next morning, after which we all went down to Baki for our Early Service Training Conference. Each night was a late night, Friday especially as we found a great bar with an even better cover band and we danced the night away.

So, arriving home Saturday, after the last person had left my house (I'm a pretty natural stop off point for many people), I was relieved to have some quiet time to myself. While preparing dinner I realized that there was no water. "That's odd" I thought "I specifically filled up the tank Thursday morning in anticipation of not wanting this exact thing to happen." Thinking no more on it, I cooked dinner and left the dirty dishes for tomorrow's clean up.

I was exhausted from the week and set my alarm for 8:10 so I could turn my water on and go back to sleep. Groggily I pulled myself out of bed in response to the beep and stumbled down the hall switching on the valves. Eyes still half-closed, I was heading back to bed when I heard a sound that was certainly not the sound of a filling water tank. I followed the sound to my sink room and was snapped awake by water gushing out of the connection piece from my pipe to faucet, water spraying wall and ceiling far more than floor.

I didn't even have my glasses on, and was already soaked simply from my efforts to turn off the water. I rushed back to get my glasses, a wrench, and plumbers tape. As I stepped over the threshold, I knew that I had become what every wife dreads-the man who is about to 'fix' his own plumbing. I have no clue how I kidded myself I knew what I was doing, I don't even understand how it is that my hot water tank brings water to the hot water faucet. Somehow I managed to isolate the leak and bring the ranging torrent to a sharp stream, shooting my up at my mirror at a 60 degree angle.

At this point I made myself a pot of coffee and started texting. The text ran something like : 'Hey-do you know any plumbers, also do they have plumbers here, also how much do they cost?' Never before in Azerbaijan have I been so happy to have Azerbaijani friends; within 10 minutes Elvin offered to come over to check it out, where he also took a swing at it with the wrench. We called, and picked up, my landlady and agreed that we had to find a plumber. And also to empty the water tank because the neighbors downstairs were beginning to complain.

As of Monday morning my plumbing was fixed. Not only that, but he also improved the pressure of my hot water faucet. And he fixed my toilet!-no more bucket flushing for me. It also provided me with a great opportunity to give a gift to my landlady for some much needed brownie points.