Carrying Water

A couple days ago, we got the pleasure to meet and help Rita's grandmother. We found her home with friends mourning the lost of her eldest child. They had set up the traditional approach which is very similar to sitting Shiva, where they sit and remember the individual for up to five straight days. We thought it would a helpful experience to carry water for them. It didn't seem like it would be that bad and as soon as we mentioned our plans, people came running to give us their Jerry Cans. These yellow containers, originally used for petrol, are about 5 or 6 gallons and are ubiquitously used for water carrying. Almost every family has multiple cans to hold and transport liquid. Our group, Colleen, John, Lindsay, Zoe, Sarah, a couple locals and I, all walked to the bore hole laden with multiple empty cans. It seemed like a fairly short walk, no more than a half mile, and in comparison with the distance many of the kids have to walk everyday, it was nothing. John didn't seem to think so and bet any girl 500 dollars they couldn't walk all the way back with a can on their head. I was surprised to see Colleen take up the challenge and after filling all of our cans and a couple for the locals who were waiting, she strode out undeterred. Although she had a smaller can, it was still impressive and funny to see try the African way of carrying things. Zoe, Linds, John and John all grabbed one of the big cans and I thought I could do two. As we set out from the bore hole the cans didn't feel two heavy and all of us were going pretty strong. Luckily the day wasn't to hot and it actually started to rain which cooled us all of but made the cans extremely slippery. Once we were about halfway back, it was a effort to keep going. These things got heavy fast. Soon I could manage 30 steps and then had to lay down the cans for a few seconds. Colleen didn't stop once and managed to hustle all the way back. Us mortals though soon felt the weight and struggled to maintain a good hold on the cans. Non the less we all made it back and were rewarded with hot tea, grounds nuts, hugs, smiles and thanks. Just doing this short walk once was enough to make all of us further respect the incredible work it takes just to get water every day.
Photos by Sarah Morris