Water Delivery

Empty Jugs

Payment and Paperwork

Fresh jugs

Our Water Delivery Man headed back to his van.

About every two weeks R's translator E or our driver D calls the water company for us and orders another delivery.  Although the water in Moscow is better than the water in St. Petersburg it is still advised to filter it. Although we know some people who first filter and then boil. . .We have a filter pitcher much like you can buy in the states, but in order to filter all our drinking and cooking water it was in use nearly nonstop.  We can buy water by the jug in the grocery store but when we have to carry it home it gets very heavy.  So, like most expats in Russia we ordered a water system.  The water comes out of the dispenser very cold or nearly boiling, spoiling us for both drinking water and  making tea or instant oatmeal.

There is an English option for phone ordering, however, unlike in the states when talking with an automated system and the voice on the other end of the phone says push one for English and then in Spanish press "dos for Espanol" the entire message is in Russian, so I don't know when to push what to listen and order in English.  As our Russian gets better I should be able to manage this task for us!

In order to gain entry to our building you have to have a magnetic key or someone has to "buzz" you in.  When the Water Delivery Man arrives the door lady buzzes him in and then calls me on the intercom, the only words I understand are "Hello" and "Water", but knowing that my water is to be delivered (when they order the water they get a window of time that I am to expect delivery, usually between 9am and noon the next day) I answer "Da" and then I hear the elevator coming up.  The Water Delivery Man unloads our new jugs of water, loads up the empties and then hands me the paperwork, Russians LOVE their paperwork, about 4 sheets of paper with official stamps on each sheet and I hand him the cash.  Then we wish each other "Do Svidanya".

We had been ordering six jugs at a time, but this last time our Water Delivery Man only brought five.  There was a good bit of pantomime and laughter and I understood that with the ice, puddles and distance that six jugs are too much to try to juggle and he could only handle five.  Even understanding very few words I totally understood what he was trying to tell me, so much of communication IS nonverbal!