Kenya
Kenya Story
I remember being annoyed several years ago when our water purifier wasn’t working at our house. I was in the middle of watching my favorite TV show and I went to the fridge to get a bottle of water, while still keeping my eye on the TV. When I opened the fridge, I realized we had no bottled water in their, which meant that I had to take that LONG walk to the garage to get a bottle of room temperature water to drink.
Quite a contrast from being in Ibissil, Kenya where we were told about an 18-month drought that they were going through. Their livestock is depleted, and their agriculture is no longer producing. We then met three teenage mothers whose job it was to fetch water for their families. They explained to us the long distance they had to walk for water daily, but I decided to walk with them anyway. Since the walk is so long, they bring their donkeys with them to carry the water back to the village. We walked through this thorn riddled, rocky, mountainous terrain, all the while not knowing if this arduous journey would be a total of 10 miles or 20. The 10-mile source is only available about once a week and it’s pretty scarce even if there is anything there.
The sun was starting to set and we were just approaching this first place to check and see if any water was there. At this point, I was exhausted, and about to call it a day because we hadn’t found any water. If there wasn’t any at this next source I wasn’t sure if I could continue. As we all approached the source, I saw the women, start getting excited and shouting to each other, “its our lucky day.” We walked up to the source that made them excited and there was about an inch of water remaining and they started to scrape up what’s left of the water and fill up their empty jerry cans. This water was so green and dirty most Americans wouldn’t even allow their pets to drink this, but yet it was their lucky day.
- Jordan Wagner – Executive Director
