Coming from the UK - where water falls from the sky in depressing abundance - I never thought for a moment I'd be happy to see grey clouds and rain. But this evening in Jirapa the first proper, steady rain has fallen since November and I was so happy I danced in it!

The north of Ghana has been in the dry season for some months now. It is extremely hot (apologies to those of you at home who have been living in a perpetual winter) I would guess it's around 42 - 45 degrees in the shade during the day here. But it doesn't really get cool at night either; the temperature stays somewhere around 25 - 30 degrees.

Living in a new country as a VSO volunteer I prepared myself for all sorts of possible difficulties and obstacles; different culture, different work ethic, different food, different climate. Most of these changes I have adapted to with relative ease. However, I never thought that 5 months into my placement I would face a dilemma that kept me awake at night and fretting during the day until I changed my daily routine. And that problem was water.

When I arrived in Jirapa in September I was overjoyed to find that the house was connected to the water supply and we had running water from taps in the bathrooms. But at the end of January, without warning, it stopped.

At first this wasn't such an issue as the water supply is sometimes erratic. Due to water shortages in the dry season, the water board often rotate the water supply to different areas of the district. However, after three weeks and having used all the water in our emergency buckets, I began to panic. Wondering how to get enough water to wash, drink, cook, flush toilets and do laundry became a daily worry.

Getting water for drinking was easily solved. In Ghana, pure water is sold in sachets and picking up a whole bag of these 500ml sachets is very cheap. But we still needed water for everything else. Perhaps needless to say, I have now visited the water board in Jirapa several times and made the acquaintance of many people working there. One day, I drove past a group of the workmen standing with their hands on their hips in the middle of the road. They were having a heated discussion and looking at a huge pipe, while water sprayed liberally onto everything around them. They greeted me enthusiastically. So I stopped to enquire if this was the source of the problem. I received the vague and uncertain response: "Yes Sister Alice. Yes, I suppose this could be the problem".

As water hasn't arrived for two months now, I can safely assume that the leaking pipe wasn't the problem after all. Who knows when water will come back? The last news I heard was that the pump had broken, and they were waiting for a new part to arrive.

Hilariously, a man arrived the other week from the water board and presented a water bill with a flourish and a smile. I nearly hit the roof, but didn't. After calmly explaining that we hadn't had any water for several weeks, he frowned, looked at the bill, and said "oh no, you're right, the charge is only very small". Brilliant.

I am now resigned to the fact that our lack of running water may be a more permanent situation and we've adapted accordingly. I've bought a yellow jerry can and make daily trips to the borehole at 6am when the weather is coolest and the queue is shortest. I'm very lucky that the borehole is only 200 metres from the house. It could be a lot further. So every morning I stand in a queuing system that I don't fully understand until one of my neighbours invites me to come and fetch. Using the pump is easy but tiring after a while. Mostly, the Ghanaian women laugh at my genuine inability to pump and carry water; after all, they collect water from the borehole several times a day for whole families. I am amazed at how they carry huge pans of water on their heads with relative ease, while I stagger a measly 200 metres with one yellow jerry can in my arms, looking like I'm training to be a contestant for World's Strongest Woman.

So when the rain came this evening, me and my housemate ran outside with our buckets and started collecting the rainwater. Within minutes I had enough to fill the large bucket in my bathroom. So I'll be washing in rainwater for the next few days. I'm just thrilled I get a break from running to the borehole for the next two mornings.

Unfortunately, with the rain storm came a power cut so I'm sitting here writing this blog by candlelight…well, you can't have everything!