What’s the current prognosis as far as municipal water?

At first it was a week, but now they’re saying a month. With all the radio broadcasts, there is a sense of hopelessness when it comes to water. I wouldn’t be surprised if it took three months. And there’s also no trash service, so trash is piling up. And the river stinks.

It sounds a bit like early Covid. But during that time, even if you were isolated, anyone you called would have some basis for understanding what was happening. In this case, you guys are in such a weird bubble.

Yeah. The other thing is that there’s no infrastructure here; the city just caters to tourism. And there isn’t a lot of information. It would be better to know, so that people could make a move. But I think [the city] is just trying to make people feel better by keeping them in the dark.

Have there been unusual neighbor interactions, like with people you didn’t know well previously?

Yeah. That’s been an amazing silver lining to the whole thing. I have a neighbor who I always knew was really cool. He’s been offering me hamburgers and stuff. My girlfriend’s car got minorly fucked up, and he’s gonna help fix it.

My trash can was overflowing with water. I kicked it over yesterday, and people had been throwing their dogshit bags in there, it was this colorful variety of bags full of shit all over the place. This neighbor guy was walking by and I was like, “I didn’t mean to do this...,” thinking he was mad. But instead he said, “I collect cassette tape players. You should come over sometime.” Everyone’s so nice to each other right now, except when they’re in the gas line, pissed. I’ve met a lot of people I never would’ve otherwise.

This article originally appeared online on Oct 8, 2024. You can read it in full here, or order issue 8.