Sunday, July 27, 2008

Enough water

Village women pulling water

5/2/08
Drip...drip...drrrip...that's the sound of my sweat falling--after a long and languorous slide from my brow to my cheek--from my chin to my chest. Music to my ears. It means I'm drinking enough water!

So many families are repairing their homes with newly mixed clay that the well I pull my water from is emptying out! When someone's house is getting re-done, girls line up to carry water from the well to the house, where the men mix up the clay by walking--squelch squelch--around on big mounds of millet chaff/water/mud/manure/sand. The wells get noticeably lower after a mud-mixing party, and my water-pulling device ( a rubber bucket tied to the end of a long strap of webbing) can't reach the water. So. Gotta get up a little earlier. No problem.

1 comment:

slim pickins said...

mud, water, millet, sand...hm, sounds EXACTLY like cob! even the way it is mixed, by dancing on it! COOL!