There's a Sewer in My Kitchen!

How do you like that for a title for my post? And yes, it's true! I've had a strange leak in my kitchen from underneath a mound of cement near my sink. I found out that almost every time I flush my toilet, water comes out from this mound. So one of the missionaries and a local plumber came over to investigate. They discovered that there is a blockage somewhere so the water cannot get to the soak-away (that is what we call the septic tank here), and it is backing up. So to make a long and gruesome story short and well...still gruesome, the plumber dug a hole in my kitchen floor and hauled out about 7 bucket fulls of sewage! Yes, sewage in my kitchen! On my kitchen floor! Spread across my kitchen floor! And the cockroaches came to investigate, too! And the plumber enjoyed picking out large unrecognizable objects from the muck and showing me! Yuck! Below, you can see the plumber sticking out from under the sink as he digs out muck from the hole and puts it into the big pan next to him.


Unfortunately, it was dinner time and the horrible smell completely ruined my appetite! So after a lot of work, the plumber and the missionary, who also knows a lot about plumbing, told me that my toilet has to be ripped out and a new pipe has to be put in. So for the next few days, there will be workers at my house digging things up and putting in a new pipe. Oh, well. Hopefully we can avoid ever having a sewer in my kitchen again!

Word for the Day: soak-away (septic tank)