Buzzwords

Every place I've been has had it's own, well,
kind of a buzzword. Not that they're all nonsense,
because in many cases they aren't. But they are
sured used a lot.
In El Salvador is was 'fijate' or take notice/be careful.
Which meant something not too good was probably
involved in whatever one was doing. For Senegal
it was 'Inchallah', if God agrees. Romania's was,
ce sa facem or what can we do.
Each one I've heard a million times and have also
used them another million or so. It is when in Rome
do what the Romans do that seeps these buzzwords
into one's vocabulary, after some time.
Here in Namibia the word I hear a lot is 'struggling'.
Which to me isn't all that bad because I am thinking
that if one is struggling then one is trying for some
sort of result or change.
There are the struggling to find transportation from
the 70 km away from anywhere village we live in,
to anywhere. Also the struggling to find some
money and so on and so forth.
Of course by living here and not being a citizen of
Namibia, it hasn't made me immune to me having to
think ... man, I'm struggling here to come to some end.
A visual of a struggling situation is right there in the
photo. That is the old bathtub we use to catch and
hold water for the HIV woman's support group
vegetable garden. By the way the garden is really
shaping up and is just plain not much room to walk
around in anymore. It is coast to coast plots in
different stages of growth and development.
What the struggling part of this bathtub is, is that
it's empty. Been empty 2 out of the last 3 days.
Also, it's been asked to hold less water daily over
the last week because of about a 50% reduction
in the water service.
Plus, the times that were like clockwork have become
something like how the arrival of the new millennium
was supposed to be with computers, unpredictable.
Ok, here's the struggling angle.
Had to do some fast thinking to get the women to come
back after the disappearing act of last year's money.
That took a few weeks and a lot of fast talking.
In fact, that is going along swimmingly, to kind
of try and be in the pun flow of words.
Here's the dilemma, the plots that are just planted with
seedlings and the new seed beds are in jeopardy of
going down the drain. So, what do the people do?
Before the water was from 6 to 9 a.m., then from
5 to 6 or 7 p.m.
Lately it has been 6 to 7:30, then 5 to 5:30.
People were getting to the garden, scoop up one
bucket of water (and have 5 huge plots to water),
then the water stops. Then they come earlier and the
water stops earlier.
So, and me included, seeing as I have a few plots of
the favorite fruit called tomato under cultivation, are
struggling away to get the water to keep the joint
hopping in vegetable garden splendor.
This morning, struggled out of bed at 5:30 to get there
when the first drop flowed from the tap. Struggled to
get the fire going to heat the water for coffee.
Struggled walking through the sand to the garden.
Struggled to find the key that someone kind of threw
in a pile. Struggled to get the old rusty lock of the
garden door open.
Then after all that, there was no water running but I
was lucky to be first there and the bathtub was full
from last night.
At that point my struggles were over but as a few
people arrived I could see the look on their face.
The look of, ok, another struggle.
Hopefully tomorrow there will be water so as to
give the garden group a - get out of struggling to
water the garden free card for the day.
But all this has left me with these parting thoughts.
Tomorrow 'fijate' that there may not be water and
if there is none, then 'ce sa facem'. But 'Inchallah'
it will come, so that tomorrow we won't have to
struggle to find a way to water the garden before
it dries up.