A go fetch wata

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.