Maji

The well where we get water from

The life of an African is hard. We were spoiled in Tcad with having our own personal well at home –good for showering, drinking and everything in between.

Here it is work. We need water to flush, wash—face, teeth, body, clothes, dishes, floor, hands, hair –everything! Where do we get it? We draw it from outside, from the well with a bucket. To drink we must “import” from a nearby drinking well. When I first arrived it was raining everyday, now I haven’t seen rain in a week or so and our well shows it. We haven’t been able to easily get more than two full 5 gal buckets out of the well in a day. (If we do it’s slow going and very cloudy) The water that’s down there is dirty. It’s not very clear and just now Mary called me out there to look in the well and I didn’t like what I saw, ants! Lots of them, small clusters of them floating together, individual ones swimming around, doing who knows what, ekk. This is a hard life.

I already only flush once maybe twice a day. I haven’t showered as much as I should (even though I’m running in the mornings again (it should also be noted that while in the States I didn’t always shower everyday, it’s not always needed and it takes a lot of time)) I use the clean water for my teeth but the other for my face. I tell myself it’s like bathing in a river. I’ve got dirty clothes but I don’t want to use what little water we are pulling out, even though Mary says I can it’s okay to.

Soon I will be like the other women who take their dishes and clothes to the local clean waterspout to wash them. Or I’ll be carrying the 5 gallon bucket on my head twice a day.

Our proper well couldn’t come soon enough! The water people have marked the land for where we should dig and are waiting for the “official” permission to dig it. I’m hoping to have our water by December. Kinda like an early Christmas gift.

The good in this is I understand local needs a bit more and I won’t take water access for granted anymore.