Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Walking water blog
May 9th, 2012.....Ghana
Today I woke up at the break of dawn, I picked up my water container and followed Efu out the door. Our walk the water hole was long and agonizing. My feet were aching and my hands were already throbbing, not only was it a long walk it was extremely hot! I knelt down drenched in sweat and dropped my gourd in and started collecting my water. It was almost 5 am and there were about one hundred women bent over at the point of exhaustion trying to get the last drop of water. Efu had a scared look on her face knowing that if she doesn't fill her jugs she will be surviving on almost no water. In the U.S. society we won't drink water unless it is clean. If you go to a restaurant and there was a fly in your water most of us would ask for a new one. Where in some of the unfortunate places around the world would more than love to have a glass of cold water fly or no fly. After a long couple of hours my jug was full and so was Efu, so we started the long journey home. I was carrying my water on my back and Efu had one on her back and one on her head. I have a bad back from a couple of years ago so I knew it would be sore in a couple of minutes but knowing that women around the world are doing this every day bad back or not I knew I had to just do it and not give up. About an hour in my back was throbbing and Efu looked as if she was in a lot of pain but we one we had to keep going. Women next to us were dropping their water bottles and others were drinking theirs. I knew in order for Efu to have enough water to have a healthy life I needed to keep all mine, not drinking it. One women who was walking with us was carrying them on a stick on her back, she apparently had a really bad back and was looking as if she was going to faint, so I walked over to her and grabbed on of her jugs. At first she looked startled as if I was taking one of her jugs but I gave her a reassuring look and she smiled and said, " Thank you!" The small little things like this make me so happy! We were coming closer to a village but I couldn't tell if it was Efu's. We stopped anyway to take a little break and a welcoming family offered us a little bit of food. We thankful took and it and chowed it down. I am not really sure what it was but we were so hungry anything would have tasted good. WE both knew we had to get back to her village soon so we thanked the kind family and moved on. We had about two miles left on our journey. We silently walked one and a half both exhausted and then the silence was broken when Efu said," Ow!" She was tearing up and I asked what was wrong. She answered me in whimpers, I only got pieces of it... I pulled out of her whimpers.." my back...sharp....cracked." I figured her back was hurting from a sharp pain and maybe it cracked. I walked over and grabbed the water on her back and said," Let's make it back to the village and have you lay on the floor." We kept walking and finally reached the village and I helped her down to a comfortable position and I grabbed the water and moved it to a safe place. Once I got back to Efu she was sound asleep. I went outside and used a little bit of water to clean off my feet. I was getting tired and decided to go to bed. I learned from this experience that these woman have to do this everyday just to get a drip of water not even clean. This was a wonderful learning experience, I learned to persever as well as about different cultures. I want to donate and find a way to get these people clean water close to them. I want to loan my money I get back from kiva to a place to help get water.
Today I woke up at the break of dawn, I picked up my water container and followed Efu out the door. Our walk the water hole was long and agonizing. My feet were aching and my hands were already throbbing, not only was it a long walk it was extremely hot! I knelt down drenched in sweat and dropped my gourd in and started collecting my water. It was almost 5 am and there were about one hundred women bent over at the point of exhaustion trying to get the last drop of water. Efu had a scared look on her face knowing that if she doesn't fill her jugs she will be surviving on almost no water. In the U.S. society we won't drink water unless it is clean. If you go to a restaurant and there was a fly in your water most of us would ask for a new one. Where in some of the unfortunate places around the world would more than love to have a glass of cold water fly or no fly. After a long couple of hours my jug was full and so was Efu, so we started the long journey home. I was carrying my water on my back and Efu had one on her back and one on her head. I have a bad back from a couple of years ago so I knew it would be sore in a couple of minutes but knowing that women around the world are doing this every day bad back or not I knew I had to just do it and not give up. About an hour in my back was throbbing and Efu looked as if she was in a lot of pain but we one we had to keep going. Women next to us were dropping their water bottles and others were drinking theirs. I knew in order for Efu to have enough water to have a healthy life I needed to keep all mine, not drinking it. One women who was walking with us was carrying them on a stick on her back, she apparently had a really bad back and was looking as if she was going to faint, so I walked over to her and grabbed on of her jugs. At first she looked startled as if I was taking one of her jugs but I gave her a reassuring look and she smiled and said, " Thank you!" The small little things like this make me so happy! We were coming closer to a village but I couldn't tell if it was Efu's. We stopped anyway to take a little break and a welcoming family offered us a little bit of food. We thankful took and it and chowed it down. I am not really sure what it was but we were so hungry anything would have tasted good. WE both knew we had to get back to her village soon so we thanked the kind family and moved on. We had about two miles left on our journey. We silently walked one and a half both exhausted and then the silence was broken when Efu said," Ow!" She was tearing up and I asked what was wrong. She answered me in whimpers, I only got pieces of it... I pulled out of her whimpers.." my back...sharp....cracked." I figured her back was hurting from a sharp pain and maybe it cracked. I walked over and grabbed the water on her back and said," Let's make it back to the village and have you lay on the floor." We kept walking and finally reached the village and I helped her down to a comfortable position and I grabbed the water and moved it to a safe place. Once I got back to Efu she was sound asleep. I went outside and used a little bit of water to clean off my feet. I was getting tired and decided to go to bed. I learned from this experience that these woman have to do this everyday just to get a drip of water not even clean. This was a wonderful learning experience, I learned to persever as well as about different cultures. I want to donate and find a way to get these people clean water close to them. I want to loan my money I get back from kiva to a place to help get water.
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