[English-Spanish] Water or electricity? Find out which I would choose and a little more

¿Sin agua o sin electricidad? que dilema... Segura estoy que la mayoría dirá: "!Que no nos falte ninguna, jamás!" Otras dirán: "Que me falte todo menos el agua" Les cuento que aquí en Venezuela hemos sufrido mucho a causa de ambas y **mi elección consiste en un análisis en retrospectiva de estos pesares** sobre todo después de haber vivido cuatro días continuos sin electricidad, no, no es una hipérbole, es totalmente literal, los venezolanos estuvimos cuatro días corridos sin electricidad.

Pienso que la elección o la respuesta a esta pregunta gira en torno a dónde vivas. Si vives en un campo con acceso directo al agua de algún manantial o de un río, por ejemplo alguien pudiera decir: prefiero que se me vaya la electricidad, total me puedo alumbrar con velas o lámparas de kerosen en la noche, durante el día puedo dedicarme sin preocupaciones a una gran cantidad de tareas gratificantes como: la jardinería, la pintura, la escritura, agradables conversaciones, componer música, jugar con mis hijos ( si es que se tienen) ir a montar y un sin fin de actividades más, todas divertidas y que con gusto haría por una semana, incluso en la noche, alguien pudiera ir a pescar o cazar lo que comerá en la noche y que cocinará a leña. Alguien puede pensar: la comida va a ser más fresca y luego disfrutaré de una linda fogata donde contaré chistes o curiosas historias para divertirnos o entretenernos y sería una semana fascinante sin electricidad y al contacto de la naturaleza. ¿Que bonito, verdad? Suena hasta idílica la idea dibujada, pero mis amigos, cuando se vive en la ciudad la realidad es otra y de idílica no tiene es: nada

Without water or without electricity? what a dilemma? I am sure that most of you will say: "May we never lack either, ever!" Others will say: "May I lack everything except water" I tell you that here in Venezuela we have **suffered a lot** because of both and **my choice consists of a retrospective analysis of these sorrows** especially after having lived four continuous days without electricity, no, it is not a hyperbole, it is totally literal, we Venezuelans were four days without electricity.

I think the choice or the answer to this question revolves around where you live. If you live in a countryside with direct access to water from a spring or a river, for example, someone might say: I prefer to go without electricity, I can light myself with candles or kerosene lamps at night, during the day I can dedicate myself without worries in a number of rewarding tasks such as: gardening, painting, writing, pleasant conversations, composing music, playing with my children (if I have any) going riding and an endless number of other activities, all fun and that I would gladly do for a week, even at night, someone could go fishing or hunting for what they will eat at night and cook on firewood. Someone may think: the food will be fresher and then I will enjoy a nice campfire where I will tell jokes or funny stories to amuse or entertain us and it would be a fascinating week without electricity and in contact with nature. How nice, right? It sounds even idyllic the idea drawn, but my friends, when you live in the city the reality is different and it is not idyllic: nothing.

I live in a city and as I told you it was terrible for two reasons: 1) All the electrical appliances obviously stopped working, among them the very important refrigerator: the very important refrigerator perishable foods began to be damaged (meats, chickens) You could see in the streets merchants selling fish, meat or chicken at very cheap prices and when you approached to buy the bad smell scared you away, because they waiting for the situation to normalize, they did not lower prices when they could do it and the merchandise had already been damaged. On the other hand, some people did not have gas because it is a service that even in some sectors today fails, not to go too far, here in the building we are going for a year without gas. Just imagine the scene: you live in a city, you have never in your life cooked on firewood, you have no gas and the electricity goes out for four days and you are left without electric stove, and if that was not enough if by some miracle you found how to cook, what would you cook? if no one has meat, nothing or you become a vegetarian or you go to see what you hunt, in the city, yes, I know, the most a cold or well, in this time the Covid-19, that yes there is like chopped rice Does it sound idyllic? No, definitely not, it sounds like a horror movie and here is the second part.

1. Cities are mostly supplied with water through electric power plants, so when the electricity goes out you are left with nothing. That was exactly what we experienced those terrifying four days, of which I lived only three without water, because thank God I live in a building that has a giant tank that supplied us all and I was already dying. You could see people praying to God for rain to collect water to wash dirty dishes or clean the filthy toilets, we were thirsty we literally had no water to drink. We had to buy the precious liquid from people who in their cars went to the surrounding towns to fetch water from springs.

For these reasons, dear friend, if you read me, if you are a country woman, or at least you live near a spring and you can fetch water three times from there or from a river (which I had to do on another occasion by the way) if you don't "water the guarapo", as we say in my land, or you don't chicken out to kill a chicken and prepare it (which I have never done and I don't think I have the courage to do ever hehehe) answer without hesitation: "I don't have electricity".

But if you are a girl who lives in the city and you know in the flesh that zero electricity equals zero water plus a sum of problems to infinity and beyond, you will surely answer like me: **" May we never run out of electricity!

I hope you enjoyed this humble but sincere publication as much as I did. I bid you a fond farewell as always, until next time