Fetching Water

National Water shut off the water to my neighbourhood this morning. No warning. I woke up, went to fill my jerry can – because the landlord still doesn’t have water in my apartment – and there was no water.

I’m trying to think the uproar the people of Dean Park or Oak Bay would be in, if BC Hydro suddenly decided to replace the pipe and so turned off the water.

Anyway I did not have a drop of useable water and I am too cheap to use bottled water to bathe.

What’s a girl to do?

Well, me thinking I am all tough and an African woman, I grab my 20L jerry can and follow the masses of women and children all carrying empty yellow cans towards the end of the street, where I have never explored.

One of the women invites me to walk with her, so I tag along. It’s a beautiful walk down this long hill, but as we are chatting and suddenly I realize we have been walking for the better part of 10 mins… downhill.

We cut through some yards, and down the side of a small cliff, and then we could hear children’s laughter along with rushing water.

The woman I’m walking with wades into the water to fill my jerry can as the water shoots out of a pipe protruding from the side of a hill. She doesn’t want me to get wet.

She hoists the full can up the hill, as easily as she took it down empty, then begins to fill her own. She tells me to get started that she will catch up.

Let me tell you something I learned. 20L of water is really, very heavy. It is not as easy as all those women, with the jerry cans balanced on their heads, make it look. What faced me next was a 20 min walk up hill.

Walk 20 steps, stop, rest. Start again. It didn’t take long for my friend to catch up, overtake me, and leave me in the distance.

But, you know what? I gained respect. Everyone I passed said something. Well Done Muzungu. Hey Muzungu are you tired? Muzungu, you are fetching water? Good Job. The kids just laughed as girls half my size, blew past me their jugs on their head.

And when I finally made it home, and got the jerry can up the steps to my flat, I was really proud of myself. Carrying that much water home, was a pretty big sense of accomplishment, and a tiny look at what many families go through daily.

I’ll tell you what else; no water suddenly makes you realize the value of water. That night I finished a load of laundry, bathed, flushed the toilet, and cleaned the floor where I had tracked in mud, with less than 10 L.

I am exhausted, I have blisters, I am VERY glad the water is back in my compound (although not in my apartment), but I would do the walk again in a heartbeat.