Life Around the Well

For ten days I went up the mountain. Literally. I took a bus to Santa Catalina and then a Jubble-Jubble up the mountain – to darn near the top. The view was inspiring, and the trip a bit terrifying! Once there I was integrated into the community. This is a very poor community of mostly farmers. They have very little land on which to grow anything – and it is not very close to town. So, in the family I stayed with, Nemrod and his wife went to work and their kids (seven of them) stayed with his father in town in order to go to school – a real privilege. No one up there spoke much English, and my Cuebueno is still in baby stages so communication was extremely difficult. But even without language I quickly learned that the center of the community it town was the water pump. Here the women would gather to wash clothes and young children, the older kids would do their own laundry and visit and bath after school to cool themselves in the heat of the day. There was visiting and gossip and a chance to catch up and get to know one another as the work of the morning and day was done.

It was very hard for me to try to fit into this community. I was the only Caucasian person most of them had ever - or would ever - see outside of in movies. It was a little like being a celebrity or having the plague – as I was watched and stared at and tended to develop a following of small children wherever I went – but everyone was very shy and did not want to try to talk to me or to get too close.




Except at the water pump. Here I also took my bathes, washed my clothes and helped to wash the younger children. Suddenly all of the texts about gatherings at the well were coming alive. When Jesus met the woman at the well, or when Jacob met Rachel, or Abraham’s servant went to find a wife for Isaac and encountered Rebekah. Suddenly I could see it all unfolding before my eyes. Life happened right there at the well – and in Cakha, life was lived around the town water pump. Life was much simpler up there. When there was work, everyone pitched in – and when there wasn’t everyone gathered to visit and stay in community. If a movie was playing, all the children who heard it starting would come on in to watch. The gunfire in the distance mattered less when everyone they cared about was sleeping right next to them.

I was blessed to have been a part of such a tight-knit and loving community and family – even for ten short days.