WATER

These pictures are from JP's mom's house in Chad.  The last time we were in Chad, 3 years ago, the way to get water was by paying a man to bring big jugs of it on a cart everyday.  The jugs would be emptied into a big barrel, and then when you needed water you would scoop some out of the barrel.  Some time in the last 3 years JP's mom was able to get this new system installed and it makes life easier! 
You can see the big black water tank.  It is connected to a generator (which runs on gasoline) and once a day it is turned on to pump water from a closed underground well into the tank.  This leads to the spigots - there is one faucet inside the wall, and there is one outside, but the control handle for both is inside.  You can see JP sitting inside the wall in the top photo.  See the hole in the wall?  This is for words and money to pass through.  Neighbors come morning and evening to fill a bucket with water.  It costs about 2 pennies per bucket (10 francs.)
In the bottom 3 photos you see a neighbor girl (who didn't mind me taking pictures of her) going through her daily chore of fetching water.  I don't know how far away she lives, and I don't know how much a bucket full of water weighs exactly, but I do know that I would have a hard time lifting it onto my head and carrying it home like that (and without half the water sloshing out!)

Are you feeling thankful for your in-house plumbing yet?  I am!