Today I went to fetch water
for the first time. Our well is a few hundred yards away from our
house. To get to the well the path takes you through a few other
peoples backyards. In Sierra Leone it is standard practice to sit and
talk with your neighbors for a while as you pass by. Many of the
footpaths lead right through people's living and cooking areas, so
it's hard to not strike up a conversation for a while. I'm very
confident with my Krio greetings, but I'm still working on my Mende.
On Sundays many people are outside together either doing laundry (in
Krio it's called brooking). preparing food or just hanging out
together. The people along the way were excited that a white man (in
Mende, Pumuy) was trying to carry a bucket on his head like the
locals do. I'm going to need a lot more practice to master the art.
At the well I was greeted
with more excitement from the numerous kids playing near the well.
Pretty much everywhere I go I am enthusiastically greeted by a group
of children, but this time, with a bucket on my head, they could
hardly contain there exhilaration. My thirteen year old younger
brother also brought a bucket along, so we filled both of them up.
The buckets are pretty big and when full I would guess they weigh
forty or fifty pounds. Once you get it settled up on your head it's
not so bad. We then began the trek back through the gauntlet of
gawking neighbors. Their shouts of encouragement motivated each step
back towards the house.
Going to fetch the water
has given me a new appreciation for the water I consume here. All the
water we use to drink, to bathe, to cook with and do laundry with
must be carried on our heads about the distance of a few football
fields. It is not back breaking work, but it takes time and energy
(mostly the energy of my three younger siblings, as they are the ones
responsible for fetching water) and makes me very conscious of each
cup I consume.
