Andranafotsy sud
Cooperation, leisure, jokes and happiness
While the queue of buckets forms, all sorts of things happen. You might expect that the water users are disturbed by the pump’s slowness, but people help each other with pumping, children help move the buckets forward, women sit, chat, laugh and exchange news. Some people leave their buckets behind to carry out other activities in the meantime, others hang out and socialize. The pump has become a placeholder for collaboration, jokes, relaxing and leisure. Yes, some would even say happiness. Because they don’t need to boil the water before drinking they have time for other activities, such as spending time with neighbours.
Timeline and challenges
The line of buckets operates as a timeline. When water users queue their buckets, they gauge the amount of time left so other activities can be done while their buckets are slowly moving closer. The main problem is that because of its over use, the pump breaks down frequently. Thankfully, Bertin has always been able to repair the pump.
On one morning we sat next to the pump to observe everything that happened, and counted the amount of water users. It was a true social and joyful spectacle to watch. Some observations:
A woman pumps and she gets tired so a man helps her out and pumps 4 buckets of water for her. After that he helps other women too and pumps for about 15 minutes. We count some 7 men, 12 women and a few childrenTo fill up different types of receptacles a lot of pumping is involved:
1 small bucket = 62 times
Jerrycan = 390 times
6 litres bucket = 67 times
10 litres bucket = 116 times