Life takes more time here. This morning I washed my hair. Thankfully some ladies in the village carted water for us from the pump; otherwise I would have had to haul it from about 20 minutes away. I took the bucket into the girl’s bathroom. The bathroom consists of a hut made of reeds. The toilet is a hole in the ground covered with flies. They added a plastic lawn chair with a hole cut out of the seat for our comfort. So, once I was in the bathroom I used the water from the bucket to slowly cup water onto my hair to wash and rinse.
I love the thought of community living. Ginger and I walked over to some ladies in the village. About a dozen of them sat splitting the bark off of the reeds that were bundled up. Ginger motioned trying to ask if we could help. One of the women shook her head yes and said, “Knife!” We laughed with the women and went to retrieve the required tool. When we returned to show off our knives, we were greeted with smiles and thumbs up signs. The bark is split off of the reeds so water can’t collect which would cause them to rot. The reeds are bundled up in groups of about 20 tied together with palm leaves. The bundles are tied together to create walls for the houses. We worked for three hours then stopped for a meeting. The ladies continued long after we left.
This evening we enjoyed a meal cooked over the fire under a blanket of stars. The evening sky looks fake here, like it is out of a movie. There are so many stars!
