To drink.
Arrive to the small village, enter the family cabin deprisa, look for the half pumpkin used as a bowl, uncover the clay jar in which the water is stored that, traveling after a trip, the mother of the family has been bringing from the Far well.
And drink.
Not too because it is not allowed, no one is allowed. Water is for everyone, you have to share it, it is very scarce and must last.
From time to time, only occasionally, with some rest of the water destined for that purpose, family members can wash themselves. Not too much, just the right thing for infectious diseases not to punish the already mistreated body.
But washing is not really so necessary when thirst is the most important evil. The evil that threatens health because life contains in a circle of permanent needs that almost nothing, just the occasional rain, can relieve.
Drink little. Wash from time to time. Cook indispensable foods.
Survive.
Under a relentless sun, creator of an environment of extreme dryness.
That burns the earth until unpopping it, emptying it with hope and turning it into a solitary and meaningless landscape.
Pepe Navarro, Burkina Faso
