Food and Water

Today we cooked American food! And was it ever yummy. As part of our training we had to all plan and cook a meal together. (PC wants to make sure we won't die from not being able to feed ourselves.) So, we made spaghetti with tomato sauce, a veggie stir-fry, and elephant ears- SO yummy! I ate waaay too much.

Me, Nora, & Amanda making stir-fry!

Yesterday, I had the really great experience of getting water! My family is lucky and has a spigot on their property, so that's where we usually get our water. (It still has to be boiled if you want to drink it, though.) When the power is off for a few days, it still works because there is a reserve from what the pump has already done (or something like that, I don't understand exactly how it works). However, when the power is off for more than a few days, there is no water, and you have to get it elsewhere. Meaning, you have to go to the local borehole, physically pump your water into jerrycans (bug yellow jugs), and carry it back to your house. Our power has been off for a while now, so no more water from the spigot, for the time being. I offered to help get water, and my family let me! It was great! I'm kind of starved for exercise here, so pumping water was so much fun- my arms were worn out really quickly, and it was so nice to feel physically tired. Then, after we pumped, we carried the water back to the house. We probably live the equivalent of three city blocks from the borehole, but a full 10 liter jerrycan in each hand can really make you tired! I was pretty proud of myself for making it the whole way.

One frustrating thing is that the kids do so much work here. You would think that the men would be the ones hauling water, but who was waiting in line at the borehole? About twenty scrawny kids. I went with my mom and my sister, but during the time we were there, I only saw two other women- the rest of the people getting water were all under 12. The men stand around town and talk while their kids are lifting the jerrycans.