Photo Vignette

It was 5:30am in Mookane, Botswana, the time my brother George wakes all the kids up. I rub the sleepiness out of my eyes and roll out of bed. My sister Alice always tells me that I’m going to push my eyes deeper and deeper into my head if I keep rubbing them, but I do it anyways. Our family has six members; Papa, Mama, my two older brothers George and Paul, my sister Alice and me the youngest. I’m kind of like the “black sheep” of the family. I get everyone’s old, worn out clothes and shoes. Today, I decide to wear my nicest clothes; George’s old tennis shoes that my big toes and pinky toes hang out of, Paul’s old khaki shorts that I have to use a rope to keep from falling of me, and Alice’s once white shirt that has faded to a light brown color, kind of like the color of the dirt we use as our floor. Papa calls us to hurry to the table for breakfast. Because me and my siblings all share a room, it is a mad dash towards the door. They remind me of hyennas running after prey and it scares me, so I wait until the fight is over. I call out to Alice save me a seat by you please! I grab Sissy, my stuffed elephant and best friend, and head to breakfast. When I go in, Papa looks at me with disapproval and asks when I am going to get rid of Sissy. I am no longer a child he tells me. In these moments, I see Papa as Cruella DeVille, trying to steal my happiness away from me. I take my seat beside Alice and look at the bowl in front of me. Our breakfast this morning, like every other morning, is goolosh. Every morning Mama gets oats, grinds them with a stone, and puts water in them. On special days when Mama finds it, we have a little bit of cinnamon with our goolosh. I always think that Mama has somehow gathered clouds, made them look dirty, and put them in the bowl. I can always dream, right? Today is Tuesday, which means it’s water day. Every Tuesday, every family in our village is allowed a single pot of water for each member of the family. Most of the time, we run out of water because there are six of us. Then Papa has to give George away for a while. For what I don’t know. I’ve heard Paul say that he is working for someone so we can get more water, but I think that he just wants to get away from Paul. You look nice today, Mama tells me. I can’t help but look down at my toes hanging out of my shoes, like they are playing hide-and-seek with me. I tell Mama thank you and go back to eating my goolosh. Our house is small. Three rooms, no washroom, and no windows. Mama and Papa always talk about how one day we will have a house with stairs and enough rooms that no one has to share a room and a house that has a tub and a real kitchen. This will probably never happen, but one can always dream. Once we have washed the dishes, Papa tells us to grab our pot and stand outside until he gets there. So we run off like wild banshies to our pots, then out the door to wait on Mama and Papa. While we wait, I sit with Sissy and play house. I pretend Sissy is my pet, George and Paul are two angry men fighting for me, and Alice is my best friend. It would be nice to have a best friend in real life, but Papa says that everyone outside of our house is bad. Papa and Mama finally come out of the house and we head in single file, Papa in front and Mama in back, to the church. I can’t help but think that we are a train heading to pick up a load to take to another town. Toot toot, I say and Alice looks at me with her you’re-going-to-get-in-trouble-if-you-don’t-stop glare. When we finally arrive at the church, there are already seven families ahead of us. Papa always tells us to stand as still as statues when we are in line, but I hear something coming from the front of the line. I lean to my right to see what is going on. A man is on his knees crying and begging for the Pastor to give him another pot of water. He says his wife is sick at home and can’t get out of bed. The man stays there on his knees begging the pastor for mercy, but the pastor ignores him and moves on to the next person. Mama sees me peeking at the man and slaps my arm. You know Papa doesn’t like you to be nosy like that, she says. I’m glad it was Mama who slapped me. Her slaps are like a puppy’s wet tongue licking me compared to Papa’s. When it is finally our turn to get water, the pastor shakes Papa’s hand and pulls him away from the rest of us to talk. George always says that the pastor is asking when he can receive George’s help again, but I don’t know if that is true or not. When Papa and the pastor finish their conversation, we each fill our pots with water. When it is my turn, the pastor grabs my wrist smiles at me. His teeth remind me of the junebugs that fly around in our house. Here you go little girl, he tells me. My face gets hot and I’m embarrassed, but I tell him thank you and get back in line behind Alice. When we finally get home, Papa tells us that the pastor offered to buy George, but he had refused his offer. Mama then tells us that it is better to have little and have a whole family than have everything but no family to share it with. Mama sure is a smart woman.