Year Nine Geography. 26th April 2011, 10:33:03.
Today Mother sent me out to get some water. It was a long and tenuous trip, but I found some eventually. I passed cattle and climbed through the murky water and walked across the piercing rocks. I was dressed in a light blue dress of thin fabric, wearing cheap shoes, and carrying a bag made of material to contain the water. We are getting desperate for water at home. This is why mother sent me out. There has been a Summer drought; we are all too hot, need something to drink, and yet there is a lack of water to go around. Rain does not fall leaving our buckets empty. The water on the streets have evaporated; and become clouded with the faeces of the people with no sanitation blocks in a nearby radius. So I have to walk to this river, bag in hand, and get as much as possible. And, since there are cattle, to get their fresh milk as well. Mother stays at home making a substitute meal of the last supplies. Father is out in the city, several miles away, trying to get a job. It is our last hope. When this water has been drunk, I will need to return here in a few days time to collect more. And more. When the sun shines on the grass (what little of it there is), it does not spell happiness on us as it should on us. It spells dehydration, long tasks, and hell for the family and townspeople.
© 2011 Peter Webb
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