Fancy...

There are times when people say to us, "Wow... I wish I could live overseas.  It must be so exciting!"  (In other words: "Wow... you guys are glamorous world travelers and it's all exotic locales and sunbeams for you!")

Today... was not... exotic.

 Unless, of course, you take into account the bacterial content of a sewer backing up into your church bathroom.  Now, that, friends and neighbors, is pretty exotic.  See, there's been a smell that comes around periodically, from the back of the church.  There's been all kinds of ideas and theories batted around, but when the water was literally pouring across the floor, I figured we could rule out some of them.  Reality had struck.

And reality takes the form of an overloaded sewer system in the rainy season, combined with overeager neighbors cleaning out their 'fridges too frequently and, well, it's the desert and there's dirt everywhere.  So, when the manhole covers come off, you get this:

But, of course, that can only happen after you've camped out 'till 4AM waiting for the city to clear a path of least resistance... only to find out that their truck is too big for the alley and they'll have to come back a few hours later.  Once the pipes are clear to do their thing, this too can be you... being... exotic:

The short of it is that in those four hours, liquid that should have stayed outside got to go inside through the office, classroom, back hallway, and stage area up to the first row of seats.  Tasty.  Also a bit squishy.  I would like to give serious props to the GAM water guys for working a cold and wet night as well as our awesome landlord who worked magic to get the job done.  To finish the clean-up I made two phone calls and got an 8-member multi-national force from our congregation to clear out the chairs, pull up the remaining linoleum & carry off the stage for the carpet cleaner genies to come tomorrow.  Hopefully they've got a box of magic anti-bacterial goodness with them.