Life Upstairs: Fetching Water and Finding Strength

There was no light for some days, and we couldn’t pump water. We had to fetch water downstairs from the well in the compound. It’s always too stressful carrying water upstairs, and my sister and I did that yesterday about 15 times; I was the one fetching while she took the buckets of water inside to fill them up. I must say, I got divine strength because before then, I was feeling weak and thought I wouldn’t be able to manage it. I didn’t want to leave the whole thing for my sister, so they don’t tag me as a wicked big sis. Lol.

I stood up, muttered a silent prayer, “Jesus, give me strength,” and we went downstairs. By then, I was charged, and honestly, I didn’t think I could go that long, but we filled every single bucket and the big drum inside. I felt happy.

Later today, they brought the light, and we’d thought it would stay longer so they could pump the water, but it stayed up for only an hour, and the storage tank wasn’t full. This means those living downstairs would enjoy water, while we living upstairs wouldn’t, except we went downstairs to fetch. The only difference now would be fetching directly from the tap at the back of the house instead of drawing from the well. We didn’t mind as long as we had water.

With my sister’s help, we went to fetch some water as we had already used a lot from yesterday and today. As we went, I’d forgotten I was hungry and waiting for dinner, so I decided to act like Mike Tyson. That was how I carried two big buckets upstairs.

I was on the stairs when I began to shake like someone who hadn’t eaten for two days. “Who sent me work to do today?” I silently said as I looked back, making sure no one heard me so they wouldn’t start mocking me and be like, “So you want to prove you have strong power, right?”

I didn’t know how I carried those buckets of water upstairs, and by the time I got inside, my legs and hands were shaking. I had to sit for a while to breathe and relax, but as I am writing this, my hands are still not stable, and all I could do was laugh at myself for wanting to prove superpower lady when hunger was lurking around.

Anyway, I am glad we’ve fetched some water and do not need to fetch from the well tomorrow as we had planned earlier. But I hope there will be light so we won’t have to fetch downstairs because it’s not easy. That’s the life of someone living in a nice building but still facing the reality of unstable electricity. We will endure, and until then, we keep asking for the strength to keep surviving.

_{Image is mine}