Snow Day...Cold Days

The thrill of our snow day was dampened by our lack of heat. Over the last few months our hot water has been dwindling. You basically only get a hot shower after 9:30 am, but before 8:00 pm. I know weird, but I just chalked it up to it’s one of those “well we are in Turkey” things. We knew it was tied to our heat somehow, but couldn’t prove it. It’s also not the kind of the thing we could explain to a repairman. A machine called a kombi provides our hot water, heat and gas for our stove. On Sunday when we woke up the house was very cold, the heat had gone out. We lit the pilot light and it came back on. Well Monday, our snow day, same thing happened and we couldn’t get it relit. So we all gathered in the living room using my space heater. This worked really well till you opened the door to the hallway.

The kombi repairman came three times on Monday trying to fix the kombi. The first time, it wasn’t working obviously and they cleaned it, banged it, and seemingly fixed it. I was a good host, gave them tea, did all the little things expected of me. I even understood most of the conversation. Then it went out again, so he came back. More banging, but it was working. Thirty minutes later it went out again. So he returned. This time he drained all of our radiators. Apparently there was a build up, as you can see from this picture, it was drained in to the bathroom. Of course this had to be cleaned after he left.

I would like to report it’s still not working totally. It worked all day yesterday, and then went out this morning around 3:00 am. We couldn't get it relit until we left for school. I'm in anticipation of whether it will be working when I get home. They haven’t put in any new parts. I have gotten the impression that just because I’m a woman, I don’t know what I’m talking about. Serdar did tell me if it doesn’t work, we will call another repairman. And we have not paid the first guy, his payment is contingent upon the kombi actually working. It’s another thing I get to add to my fun Turkish adventure. Jenna of course had to take a picture as I cleaned the gross mess from the radiator in the bathroom.

The hardest part has been going from a cold home to a cold school. I just thought I would share this picture with you. This is how I taught my classes today: with gloves, a shawl and leg warmers. Yes leg warmers are more than an 80’s fashion statement. I have found leggings and leg warmers very handy for keeping me warm!