1/25- 2/10: IST, rain and time out of site

2/3-2/10 IST, Whale watching and a lot of rain…
Feb 3rd marked my 24th week in country! I can hardly believe it’s been 24 weeks- 6 months! Time seems to go pretty quick here but then people always tell me that time always seems to go faster and faster the older we get. I have this theory that being in the Peace Corps actually accelerates time. Not day by day… those go slow, but week and month by month are what are affected by the magic of the Peace Corps. I’m not counting down when its time to leave but I think that its important to be aware of the time left so I can plan out things to the best of my ability. I’m trying not to but I’m stressing about getting things started in my community- something that I really shouldn’t worry about since I can always extend my service if I have something I’m in the middle of when the time comes to leave. But, I’ve been here for 6 months so I have just 21 months left. I wonder how long that is in Peace Corps time…

On Tuesday, Ernesto and I left the campo and arrived in Santiago to meet up with the other PCVs around 9 am. I met with the regional PCVL and received TWO packages from home! I finally got the Thanksgiving package that Rach sent me- which was actually Thanksgiving in a box… complete with a turkey tv dinner! Then the other one I got was from BCHD- thanks sooooo much guys! I felt bad opening it in front on Ernesto so I decided to wait until I got home to open it. I can’t wait! Thanks so much for thinking of me guys:) (I was pretty excited to receive the packages... see picture:)

We had our IST in Jarabacoa which is a beautiful location. It’s pretty much the base of Pico Duarte- the highest mountain in the Caribbean. The only problem with being that high up was that it was cold! We already had to bring our own sheets and towels but some smarty pants were really prepared by bringing a sleeping bag. Unfortunately, I was not one of them. I don’t have a really big backpack so I have to prioritize when I pack. I didn’t pack my computer or a towel even let a lone a blanket. Then, to make it better- the showers were pumping out water from glaciers or something so we felt like we were in the freaking North Pole. With no towel, after showering I squeegee-d off and then warmed up by chugging lots and lots of the Dominican-strong coffee. Needless to say, when I think back of IST, I’ll think of diagnostics, learning about grants and everyone plagued by a mysterious, uncontrollable twitching. (Shivering or caffeine highs... PCVs are plagued throughout service with such questions)

When we arrived in Jarabacoa on Tuesday in IST we began by presenting our diagnostics. Ernesto thought it was really funny that my APCD, Miguel, kept falling asleep and so he kept nudging me saying, “Look at Miguel!!! Hahaha!” Miguel I think is a little narcoleptic or something. One may think that the presentations were really boring due to this but I swear they weren’t bad at all! I guess, no one is perfect and so what’s a little nap here and there? Although there is a debate about whether he’s actually sleeping since he seems to be snoring but then he will sometimes ask questions related to what’s going on. Is Miguel sleeping or awake? The world may never know.

IST was pretty boring but as always, it’s great to be together with all the other PCVs in my sector group so it was a lot of fun but I guess in a boring way. Another great thing about IST was that Ann, my technical trainer is great about bringing us sweets to eat. With the junk food combined with the coffee, it’s amazing we weren’t all in sugar-induced comas or seizures by the end of the 4 days. It is possible the treats were correlated to our twitching.

After IST Sarah, Mark, Randi, Meredith and I headed off to go whale watching. Mark had the GREAT idea of buying two boxes of plants in Jarabacoa so we all had the pleasure of accompanying him during the 5 hour trip while switching from a taxi to a bus to another bus and then walking around Samaná, trying to find our hotel. Lucky for us, we didn’t have to walk around much before we found the hotel- which, by the way, was a sweet, sweet sleeping situation. We had a room with a twin and a full bed and slept 5 to the room, divining up the 500 pesos per night. There was a porch with a great view of a beautiful resort so we were able to sit on the porch at night and stare at the resort, silently sitting in blissful revere. Ahhh, one can dream. Our hotel provided something amazing that we weren’t expecting though: a shower almost like home. It was the first time I have had a shower that was HOT the whole time, had pressure, and the drain drained. What a combination! It was amazing. Not to be creepy but I hope you all think of me when your showering next time so that you will possibly appreciate your shower a little more.

Normally when the PCVs are together we like to go out and go dancing or something but, thanks to the awesome road we were on for about 4 hours in the bus, I was nice and car sick. Randi (a RN) pointed out with exclamation about 3 hours in that I was “gray” in the face and then offered me her paper bag, “You know, just in case.” Thankfully I didn’t need to use the bag but when we got to the hotel I went to bed about the same time my sister in NY goes to bed- which is about as early as I used to go to bed when I was 5. I know I know…I’m just that cool. It was raining and cold so I didn’t miss much.

The bummer was that the rain came and stayed at least the two days I was there. No worries, we were lucky enough that the whale watching boats still went out the day that we went. They didn’t go the day before or the day after since the water was too rough for the boats. The only bad thing was that we were all wet from the rain, it was chilly and the boat was like a freaking roller coaster. I ended up in the back row of seats somehow, on the top level and definitely caught some serious air a few times. I was a little concerned every once in a while when I was still flying up, off of the seat while the boat was going back down off of a wave but don’t worry: no one flew off the boat and got eaten by a whale or anything. A few people got sea sick despite the fact that the guide had free Dramamine which we were popping like candy. Sure this may not sound like fun but I would recommend whale watching to anyone who goes to Samaná. It doesn’t cost much and we saw 3 whales! Sure, they didn’t do any cool tricks or anything (like breaching) but I saw their “humps” and so I was pretty dang happy. I guess some other people saw a tail too.

After about an hour of watching, we were dropped off on an island for three hours and would have gone swimming but it was too freaking cold. Mark went in his orange Speedo that says “Hope” on the butt but even he wasn’t in the water for long. It’s amazing how we are all so wimpy now when it comes to the “cold” here. We were in awe of the people who were walking around in their swimsuits. They didn’t even seem cold! Didn’t they know that it was like 60 out and windy?! We had our sweatshirts on and we were complaining.

(Brace yourself: this is a really important paragraph) One really great thing about the island is that I discovered that I loooooove coconut! I used to HATE coconut at home. I had eaten it but never fresh and (warning: this sounds a little stupid) now I know why it’s called cocoNUT. I ate a piece and was like, “Whoa, it tastes so familiar… what does it taste like…? OH! It tastes like a nut!!!” - I believe that was a word for word repetition of my coconut experience. Its just that coconut never tasted nutty to me before. Now I could just snack on coconut like I snack on peanuts or carrots… it’s amazing to me and soooo tasty!

Ok, so back to my day… Saturday after whale watching and lots of coconut and pineapple I was happily back in the hotel when I got a text from Wandy: Betsy, there is a problem with your house. There was a landslide with the Earth under your house.” Oh, ok…hmmmm, what should I say to that? I was actually at a loss of response. He didn’t say that the house had fallen and anyways I was hours away so I responded with what I think anyone would have responded with- I asked him to please not like the house fall and said thank you. A few minutes later he called me and handed the phone to the creepy guy who speaks English in my town. Creepy Guy told me that the landslide included the land from under the side of my house and that he could see under the house. Great. When I talked to the old PCV who owns the house, Kevin, I told him I would probably be able to build a supporting wall to protect from erosion (he was aware of the problem and had asked me if it was possible) and I was saving for a wall. The bad thing is that I haven’t lived in the house for very long and so I don’t have much saved up. Well, there is no way I’m moving back in with Minga so I guess I should just hope for the best while living in the house and ask for an advance from the Country Director so I can build the wall STAT. Although the wall will help it, it’s no guarantee so I’m hoping the damage isn’t too extensive and I can still stay in the house safely. I don’t know much about landslides and I have this image of the house riding the dirt down the road like a surfer on a board. I have a feeling this is wrong but even if it’s not, there’s an awesome little drop off right next to my house so it may just “surf” itself right off of the cliff one day.

The next day, Sunday, Sarah, Mark and I hopped on a bus from Samaná to Puerta Plata and I was planning on spending the night at Sarah’s house. It was still raining and I was starting to get a little crabby. I was supposed to hang with Kenzie’s family in an all inclusive resort that night but I couldn’t get a hold of her (PC phones are known to break since they’re such high quality) and didn’t want to end up stranded in Samaná alone so I hopped on the bus with Sarah and Mark.

On the way we were beginning to realize how bad the water damage was when we were driving through towns which were completely flooded. We got a phone call from one PCV who had just left his site because he didn’t think it was safe to stay. He had to waddle across a fallen tree in a river to get out of his site. He said that the rain was stronger last night that he had ever experienced in his service and also that on Tuesday there was supposed to be an even bigger storm. Great, if my house didn’t wash away before then Tuesday just may due the trick. I had visions of my house going over the cliff while I was in it Tuesday night and it made me a little nervous. We called the Safety Security Officer and were told that if it wasn’t safe to go to our sites we could stay somewhere else until the weather got better and we would receive per diem for it. Two people have died in the area due to a landslide so far (no, not the landslide under my house smart-alecks) and some people have died in the flooding as well. I called the Hub and have been staying here in Santiago since Sunday night. Wandy told me that on Monday it wasn’t raining and they were going to get started on that wall soon. I feel bad staying in the Hub when it’s not even raining in my site but I’m nervous about tonight (Tuesday) so we shall see. Plus, jus t because it’s not raining right then doesn’t mean that it wasn’t raining earlier. Anyways, I hope I have a place to go home to!

2/2 Monday: Presenting my Charla… oh wait, I still have to finish it.
I was taking it easy this morning because I thought, “Well, I just have one page to finish on my charla so what’s the rush?” Not to mention that some tube or something broke in my bathroom so I have no water… back to bucket bathing and throwing water in the toilet for flushing it. That slowed me down in the morning for sure. Bucket bathing takes a lot longer. Lucky for me, something broke in my water tap before and Ernesto fixed it so I had water available at my tap. Although the water is not normally available every day so I need to make sure I get some water in a bucket for tonight and the morning. It’s so handy having a handy man next door that is so helpful. He told me he’d look at the problem while I was gone and see about fixing it. Good thing too or else I’ll have to buy a really big bucket to keep in my house for water. One good thing about not having the tank hooked up or whatever today was that I boiled my water to shower with and it was nice and warm:)

Anyways, I was supposed to finish my charla by 4 to go to the Women’s Meeting. Lucky for me, today was one of the days where the meeting starts really late. I was able to finish my charla and when I showed up 15 minutes late, they hadn’t started yet. One reason I may have been so late was that I was like MacGyver and had to use my kitchen knife to sharpen all my pencils since someone (Ernie) broke my pencil sharpener. It was kind of a bummer; all that work during three months and I presented it in about 10 minutes. Ah well. It went pretty well.

Tomorrow Ernesto wanted to leave at 7 am but we don’t need to be in Santiago until 9. This means that we technically don’t have to leave until 8 so I convinced him to wait to leave until 7:30- whew, that was a lot of numbers! If all goes well we’ll still be really early to In Service Training but I guess better late than never. After IST I’m going to go whale watching. It’s the season for that so although there are no guarantees of seeing one, we have pretty good odds. Well, that’s it for now. Guess I’ll write more later.

1/30 Friday- 2/1 Sunday: Sweet, I made it to February in one, mostly-sane piece!

The power has been really lax lately… we’ve had power for about two hours a day since I got back on Thursday. If I was trying to do my diagnostic on my computer still that would be a big bummer since I even Minga’s inversor (generator) has been losing all its juice between the short spurts of power. The good news: I finished my diagnostic!! Everything but the pretty front page… I still need to think of something cool to put there within my 5th grade drawing ability. That’s one thing that surprised me: I was actually nervous about bringing what I had drawn home since I thought that Wandy and whomever else were going to make fun of it. After all, I draw ok but I think my drawing skills prematurely stopped progressing in the 5th grade and I also found some mistakes that I couldn’t change (like I how spelled community wrong three times on the 2nd page… at least I was consistent). I was trying to prepare myself for them making fun of something that I put hours into and in the meantime I kind of hid it so I didn’t have to deal with it. When I got it out on Friday, Wandy was at my house (of course) and surprisingly he didn’t say anything about it! I was pretty happy but still braced incase he was holding off till later. Then Ernie and Vangie came over and they made a big deal about how cool it looked. They were like, “Why didn’t you tell us you knew how to draw?!” Let me point out that I have several stick people in my charla so I was very sincere when I said that I didn’t know I knew how to draw…

Anyways, pretty much every PCV who was at the office last week told my group and me not to freak about the diagnostic and don’t put too much time into it since it’s not a big deal. I understand that people lied on the interviews like no other (I asked: How often should women get a pap? Every 6 months- 1 year. How often do you get one? Every 6 months- 1 year. How many have you gotten in your life? Two. Take into consideration that the majority of women in my community are 30- 49 years old) and that I changed some numbers myself to make them match the totals in my spreadsheet (never was that good at data entry…) but it’s like I can’t just slack off and do a crappy job on purpose. It’s a little frustrating because I know that I’m only going to present this two or three times total.

When I got home I only had about half of my charla drawn… it takes a looooong time to draw since there are so many dang pictures to think of and draw. So, I did the unthinkable for a somewhat control freak: I asked if Vangie and Wandy wanted to help me by coloring. All that time I put into it and I was letting them color it. This sounds so mean, and it’s not their fault since the schools here don’t encourage ANY creative thinking, but they color like third graders. Every single letter is a different color and they color in the centers of every letter (so, each O has the center colored in, etc…) I guess it shouldn’t be that bad; it kind of matches the theme of the drawings although there were some that I was proud of… there were. I also need to take into account that it’s not very efficient coloring by the light of a lantern.

So, now my charla is colored thanks to the help of 6 other people in Los Ruales. Some things I fixed after people left (like how Vangie colored in the silhouette of a women bright red so I couldn’t even tell what it was) but overall it definitely saved me time. I figure that sure it doesn’t look like I would have liked but at least people helped me and feel like a part of the process. I learned the hard way that I had to erase each line that I didn’t want traced because they traced ALL of them in permanent marker and I also learned that if there was something I really wanted colored a certain way I should just color that part myself. There are about 5 pages colored by them and about 9 colored by me. I can deal with that. I need to learn to let people help anyways so I don’t get stuck doing everything myself and I need to learn that just because I want it a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the best way. (What?!? No way!) This is for Los Ruales and maybe they’ll like the 5 pages more than the 9 I did, who knows?

One cool thing about coloring my diagnostic together is that it was a conversation starter. When we got to the STI/HIV/AIDS page everyone was asking about the different diseases. They thought that syphilis was more dangerous than AIDS! It got me kind of excited to start teaching my classes. Now I’m just going to have to pick what classes to do first! Ernesto asked me if I was going to have gardening classes. Oh boy, I have killed every plant I’ve ever had. But, I guess I’ll just try to read up on it, talk to other PCVs, look around for some free seeds, and try it out. Maybe I’ll discover a hidden talent for gardening.

With all this time in my house and my little helpers wouldn’t you know that Wandy was there all the freaking time. I don’t want to tell him to get lost because he’s more helpful than any other person- and he’s only helpful about 25% of the time. He can be cool but it’s not too often. Anyways, I feel kind of like a snot because I’m so mean to him sometimes. For instance, the first night I got back he was being a brat and giving me crap about how long I was gone, what I was doing for so long if my diagnostic wasn’t even finished, and more. I think he was acting like that because he was pissy that (1) I missed the party he wanted to go to with me (2) I text his cousins Noel and Franklin more than him but tooooo freaking bad. I have pointed out several times that he’s not my boss. So, my first night back I said called curtains things instead of curtains (since I didn’t know the word at the time) and he corrected me in a snotty way (as always) and told me to learn how to talk! Oh no, I know you did not just say that to me! I was like, “Ummm, excuse me? What did you just say to me? If you’re not going to be nice (but I said helpful by mistake) then LEAVE.” He stopped talking and stayed but I was done talking with him.

The one good thing about this is that I seriously practice standing up for myself in Spanish. Then the next night my friend Jake called me long distance from the States and Wandy was like, “Don’t talk forever. You have guests.” Ha! What a little pisser thinking he can tell me how long to talk to my friends from home! I said with a smile, “You know what? If I want to talk, I’m going to talk as looong as I want.” Then the next day he was like, why did you say that to me? I explained that he obviously didn’t understand how much it costs to call from the States and what was I supposed to say, “Sorry can’t talk now. My neighbors who are here all the time are over right now but why don’t you call around 10 when they leave?” No. I know I sound a little hostile but I feel like it got the point across. I also explained in a nicer way that whenever I get a call from home, I’m going to take it. I asked him to try and think how he would feel in a foreign country, a foreign language, with no friends that you’ve known for more than 6 months and no family. Of course I’m going to talk to people from home when they call.

Later that day I was talking with Ernesto and we were talking about it. I guess Ernesto said something to Wandy because Wandy asked why I told his dad. I explained that we were just talking and sorry if I got him in trouble. It’s good to know that I can go to Ernesto if I have a problem with his kids though. Ernesto is so helpful. I feel like he’s American sometimes. He’s got a very forward thinking family and they’ve got a lot of the same ideals I’m familiar with from home. Also, he monitors and fills my water tank with out me asking and I guess some tube is broken in my bathroom so he’s going to go into Navarette and pick up a new one and fix it for me when I give him some money. It’s so nice having such a helpful neighbor. I decided that when I go back to the States I’m really going to miss knowing all my neighbors and the way the whole community is really a community. Guess I should enjoy it while I have it.

1/25- 1/29: My time in La Capital in a nutshell:
Since I was in Santo Domingo for so long, and generally don’t write in my blog at all when there, I have a lot to catch up on so I figured that I would only write the highlights… well, the ones I remember since trying to recall what I did for 5 days is asking a lot from me.

Sunday 1/25: Although I really don’t remember too much about what I did here I can tell you this: Kenzie met me in Santo Domingo this day and we wanted to go to the pool but it’s not open on Sundays:( We worked on our reports but pretty much enjoyed using the internet most of the day.

Monday 1/26: Hmmmm, nope… don’t remember what happened today either. I do remember however, that it was hot and we were able to go to the pool for about an hour. I discovered on this day that writing the report was going to take me forever (and not just because I had to pool and internet at my disposal). Kenzie finished her report today and began drawing her charla. I was starting to feel like I had ADD or something…

Tuesday 1/27: While Kenzie was making beautiful pictures for her charla I was focused on my report. I finally finished writing it and asked someone to help me out by proofreading it. (Something I should maybe do more with my blog…) Kenz and I made an appearance at the pool but the locker rooms were shut and locked. So, being the incredibly motivated PCVs that we are, we decided it wasn’t worth it to hut down the key. We didn’t change into our swim suits and we didn’t get in the water. We also didn’t collect $200 when we passed GO. We did, however, sit on the pool chairs and talk for an hour, looking at the water and commenting on how nice it would feel to swim (but not really bothered by the fact that we weren’t swimming)

Wednesday 1/28: I had been getting texts from Wandy telling me that I needed to come home Wednesday because there was a big party in Los Ruales. This one was going to be at someone’s house as I understood it and it was a pretty big deal. While I felt bad, I was still waiting for my new cell phone (PC now has phones with memory chips that are part of the PC network which means that I can call other PCVs for free. The chip phones get much better service for some reason so I was hoping that this would make it easier to talk in my site. Not to mention that my old phone broke. It was letting people call me but then wouldn’t let me answer the calls or call out.) I did get my new phone and if I had hurried I could have made it back but I was a little apprehensive about going back without have started my charla. So, I stayed but Kenzie insisted that she needed to get back.

About an hour after Kenz left, I was diligently working on my charla when she called me. It was hard to hear her because people were screaming in panic in the background. She said her bus driver had just been shot and she didn’t know what to do. Well, that’s not good. I wasn’t sure what to tell her except remembering when Ryan and I were attacked I just kind of walked away and was spared. So, I told her to walk away. Get out of there but do it calmly if possible. She told me she had to go and hung up. Well, great. Now I was worried. I tell you what; this is getting to be a little much. I thought to myself, “If Kenzie get’s shot, that’s it dude- I’m going home.” It was the first time I seriously thought about going home. I wasn’t sure what to do since I didn’t just want to go back to working on my charla but I didn’t want to tell Romeo incase it wasn’t as big of a deal and I cause a lot of headache for Kenz. Then I remembered the Safety and Security Officer- Jenn. She was really helpful with everything that happened with Ry and I so I went to her office and told her. She called Kenz and told her to come back to the office.

When Kenzie got back to the PC office I found out the whole story. She was on her bus heading home with about 9 other people when the police stopped the bus, saying there was a thief somewhere and they wanted to search the bus. They made everyone get off the bus but everyone piled into the doorway and so Kenz and another woman were still on it. The driver was getting pretty pissed that the cops were slowing his route down. He showed them his papers and said how he needed to get going. The people on the bus knew the driver (since they were mostly all from the same community- the little one that Kenz lives in) and were telling the police that the guy was legit. About that time, Kenz and the other lady decided that the one other bus that was going to the community may be a faster bet so they pushed their way off the bus, past the little crowd and the bus driver. About 20 seconds after the got off the bus they heard gun shots and people screaming. The police had shot her bus driver and killed him. What will happen to the police? Probably nothing. Now poor Kenz has to go back to her community and answer a ton of questions about it to people she knows and doesn’t know, like the driver’s family.

It’s pretty common that the police stop guaguas to “check” them. They stand on the side of the road with a 6’ or so plank with nails and a big gun. Then the one with the gun gets on the bus, looks around and if it all looks good then we get to go on our way. I’ve been stopped plenty of times but the police have always let us go. Everyone knows that they’re looking for Haitians. Sometimes I ask the person next to me just to see what they say and they always whisper that they’re looking for Haitians. I’m not sure about this but I’ve heard that if someone has really dark skin, they think that they’re Haitians and will take them off the bus. After that, I don’t know what happens. Just a little reminder that I’m not at home I guess.

Thursday 1/29 : Well, although I only got about half of my charla drawn, I was able to get a lot done. I got a new phone, medically cleared to climb Pico Duarte, a re-fill on meds, and my report written and corrected. I feel like it was a pretty productive stay in Santo Domingo.

Sarah, Mark and I left the office around 2 and stopped at the Embassy to get some food to go. It took forever and so we ended up missing our bus by about 4 minutes. That was a bummer because we had to wait 45 minutes for the next one and it was going to be packed. Normally the buses leave every 15- 20 minutes. When we got to Santiago normally we take a carro to the rotunda (bus stop/turn-around) and its 12.5 pesos. We were lucky enough to grab a bus that took us there for 15 pesos each and we had a lot more room. Then, it turns out that the bus was going to drive through Navarette so they took me the whole way and only charged me another 15 pesos! So, normally I would have paid 13 pesos + 45 pesos to get home but today I just had to pay 30! Although, at one point I was a little nervous and contemplated putting my helmet on when my bus and another decided to race. It was faster than I had ever gone on a guagua and faster than I think they were ever intended to go. They didn’t race for that long but the road wasn’t exactly straight and they don’t handle well. It seemed that right when my guagua had taken the lead we arrived in Navarette which was a relief.

Noel was waiting for me at the entrada of Calle Santiago and so I hoped on his motor and headed up the mountain. We stopped to see Minga who had a huge pile of clothing… my clothing… on the couch. I thought it looked like more clothing than I remembered giving her but shrugged it off. Then she told me that she had Ernie gather all the dirty clothes in my house and bring them down to her. That’s a little embarrassing since they were just wadded up on the floor and Ernie would have had to pick them all up. Ah well I guess.

After a little visit Noel and I went up to my house and he helped me carry all my stuff inside. Mark was nice enough to make me two tubes from PVC pipe to put my charla paper in so if I’m ever going down the mountain with them or something in the rain again, I don’t have to worry about them getting wet. When I arrived I was a little surprised at the state of my house. Wandy told me he was going to sleep at my house when I was gone which I thought was weird but I figured it wasn’t causing any harm and it would be better for the devil cat I have. The last time Wandy told me he slept in my house (yes, after the fact) I couldn’t even tell he had been there. This time however… it was no secret. Of course when I got home there was no power so I set about cleaning the house with my great headlamp.

This may be weird but since I knew Wandy has a crush on me I was hesitant to leave my underwear out. Normally it’s in a bag but Minga had taken the bag over a week ago to wash it and never got it back to me (since it was STILL wet) so all my ropa interior had been piled on the bed I don’t sleep on. When I left I took it all and hid it under some curtains on a bench, after all, I didn’t want him like smelling them or something! I don’t know what goes on in the minds of 17 year olds! I also took the pillow cases off of my pillows and made sure to put some on the other bed to encourage him to sleep on the other bed. Needless to say, when I walked into my room and fond my bed made different, complete with pillows in cases, and the other bed piled up with the curtains and my underwear, I shuddered. Who knows why the underwear was there… I don’t want to think about it.

Then, when I walked into the bathroom, I was greeted with an awesome surprise: the cats had pooped and peed at least 8 times in there. They went in my trash bucket on top of the bag, in the corners, in my shower… and I know it was both due to the two distinct sizes of off. Man, yuck! I cleaned out the bucket, filled it with water, added some shampoo for soap and started mopping. Of course as soon as I finished the power came back on. The first time I mopped my house it was because of cat excrement and it was with the light of my headlamp: Welcome home!