A few of the children of Haramaya's matenance staff and some kids from the near-by village of Batti have lined up against a fence to confirm a rummor. Yep, it's true, the white people float. Down below them, in the swimming pool, I and two VSO (like an international Peace Corps) volunteers splash and swim from side to side of the uncrowded deep end. I do a cannonball to gasps. Soon after a young Etiopian man copys the act, only his is much more impressive because he has to work up his courage. He dives in and stays under the water until he's reached the shallow end, since I don't think he can tread. I can barely hold my breath underwater here at all. I blame it on the altitute. So I float on my back as Ethiopian music blasts and people chatter.
I am officially in a state of "sitting pretty". I have my housing, food (to a degree. Hmm, cold injera and egg.), toliet, shower (to a degree. Yeay, cold water in the middle of the bathroom), telivision, and internet provided to me for free. Essentially, my schedule looks like I'm retired. It is unknown what job I will have, but for now, I'm allowed to go and do what I want. I'm certainly not complaining. I'm unpacked and happy.
On the other side of the fence, women stand. In my bathing suite, I walk past a woman dressed in several layers of cloth and holding an old metal jar. She fills this jar again and again from the public outdoor pre-pool shower that some rather beautiful men are *ahem* actually using as a shower.
She hands her jar to the women who fill a jerrycan. It's a reminder that the water is not working or available on all or even most of the campus. Somewhere, these women will use the water to cook rice over hidden fires. The kids will ask me for money and play tag around the statues instead of going to school.
They smile a lot, these women who cook and clean for us and then have their children ramble around the university because they can't afford to educate them. It's not ideal by far, but I hear them laughing and I'd like to think that they are happy too. Floating in their own way.
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