30.04.04 - 18:01

27.03.04

it's the beginning of the hot season. have i had enough to drink today? enough liters of water? have i peed enough? does saliva come easily? do my eyes tear when they should? am i sluggish, inattentive? do i sweat? all of these answers, catalogued multiple times a day. it can be demanding, this business of staying alive. it is not as easy as it had seemed before i came here.

when i gulp water on a hot day (though i know i ought to sip, i can't control myself), i first feel light-headed from holding my breath to drink. then i flush hot and sweat floods every pore. and when i am very dehydrated, i can feel the water seep into my bloodstream, bring my body temperature down, and sharpen my mind.

water means going to the well, even when i'm weak or sick. especially when i'm sick, so as to have water for showers and latrine. if i want to drink, i must walk to the well, pump my biceps to bring up the leaky well-bucket, splash it into my large plastic bucket, heft it onto my head, walk home without splashing (hearing strange clicking sounds from my compressed skull and scalp), ladle it into my anti-microbial filters, and wait. wait for it to drip down through the lazy filter. drop by drop. wait. no matter how thirsty i am.

cool bucket baths on hot days are sheer luxury. it is like drenching your body in free sweat, but clean and not dusty with salt. each cupful feels like a waste as it cascades down my body, when i think of how carefully i hoard my drinking water sometimes. the trick is not to towel off afterward. the trick is to wear clothes still wet from the wash; to keep that coolness as long as possible.

but you mustn't go swimming! here, water takes life, as well as giving it. giardia, schistosomiasis, guinea worm, dysentery, cholera: all these are born and bred in water. so don't go into the lake, no matter how great the temptation of its smooth embrace. use filters and bleach and boats and shoes and above all, don't drink from the river!

i think about oceans, about lakes, about rain sprinkling down, about furious thunderstorms, about mud and puddles, about bubblebaths and heated indoor swimming pools, about chilled seltzer water, about tap water that is always safe to drink.

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