No Water

One of the challenges of living in the bush is having limited access to water. Our water is delivered once or twice a week by a few of the schoolgirls who carry the buckets on their heads from the well that is 2-3 miles away. Marisa and I conserve water as much as possible, but even so, we probably use 6 buckets a week for dishes, bathing, drinking and cooking. That’s really not much water at all, but considering that these girls carry these buckets that are so heavy for such a long distance, the reality of it is actually surreal. The days when we’re running low on water are the worst though, because you can only conserve so much when you need to wash dishes, cook, and hydrate yourself. When I say we’re running low on water, here’s what I actually mean.

An eighth of a bucket of well water, plus a half a bucket of rainwater, plus a basin of dirty water accumulated throughout the day from our tap. Luckily, my water bottle was half full, we had enough dishes clean already without washing more, and we only needed enough water to boil noodles at this point. So we survived, but just barely, until the delivery of 2 buckets the next day.

Never again will I take my faucet in America for granted.