She stood, legs slightly apart to steady herself, and leaned over the plastic bucket. Holding the pail (which was less than a quarter full) with one hand, she cupped water in her free hand and moved it swiftly and smoothly over its inside and outside walls.
There were several more basins and buckets at her feet that also needed to be cleaned. The water was poured to the next container and the careful process was repeated. In the few minutes that I sat waiting for Byron in the car, I watched this Tanzanian woman do her work quickly and thoroughly. What most impressed me was the small volume of water used.
This is a hallmark of how African women work. Neat homes, clean dishes and fresh clothes are all maintained with minimum amounts of water and no waste.
Is this because African women are more concerned about the global crisis of fresh water than I am? Not necessarily. It's often just the plain truth of water supply that makes these women such good stewards of every drop. Many of them carry their water, some for miles. Others share a common faucet in their neighborhood. Still others have, like I do, water piped into their homes. But the number of women who enjoy this luxury is far below the number of those who collect their water in other ways.
The lovely lady washing so carefully caught my eye because she reminded me that I'm trying to use less water as I live. Watching her, I thought about how much more water I would have used to do the same job. I thought about how many liters go down the drain at our house every day.
I'm trying to be a better steward for this precious resource. When I rinse dishes, I fill one of the cooking pots I used and rinse each plate in this little bucket. I throw the water, now full of dinner scraps, on our plants outside. These are small things I'm trying to do. I'm already famous for my quick showers. A few friends have called me "Lisa Lightning Shower." But I just want to be more aware and more responsible.
Water is so beautiful. I love to dive into it and feel the coolness all over me. I hope I'm learning to take better care of it.
5 comments:
Our waste is ridiculous! I do believe we do not train ourselves to conserve because we have so very much. We shouldn't have so very much that we lose sight of the big picture, of our neighbors who are without, of making what we have last.
May we each and everyone of us try to use less, share more, appreciate the simple, give thanks for all good gifts. I like NOT buying plastic water bottles anymore. I don't mind throwing the excess water out onto our plants from our reusable bottles.
Thanks for the visual picture of how an African woman wastes little water.
I like that your heart is so gently concerned with conserving precious things. like water, &people, &life.
So where did you learn to take lightning showers? I think from your Mother.
Just half joking, but that is good. California is very short of water these days and they are threatening to ration it. But does anyone listen? Dad and I are trying to.
Love you.
Hello Mum!
I was just thinking today that I need to go back into this post and credit you as being the Queen of Water Conservation :-)
Love you too!
Yes, bottled-water- what a scam, at least in the US, or places where clean water is available.
But you bring to light a very important issue- the average American uses 100 gallons of water every day. (The average world citizen, I believe, uses less than 10). And some crazy percentage, like upwards of 80% of all conflict in the world (something crazy like that) is fought over water.
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