Water

2016.

I got a one-way ticket to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and gave my parents a few days’ notice. I knew nothing about the country. The company seemed nice, so I just went for it. A taxi driver picked me up, dropped me at a guesthouse, and told me that he would come the next day to take me to the bus station. I chickened out. No electricity. No internet. I was so afraid of going out to buy water. I asked the receptionist whether I can exchange my complimentary breakfast for a bottle of water. She said no.

The following day I got on the most terrible bus/ coach that I have ever been to in my life. There was neither air conditioner nor water. The roads were rough. The windows were left open to welcome the red dust. I didn’t dare to step out of my comfort zone, just to buy water. I doubted that people drink certain brands of drinking water. I shouldn’t pay any peddlers for a bottle of water. I can die on a bus going nowhere without a mean to communicate with anyone. I asked a passenger who sat in front of me to share with me a little of her water. She said no. I assumed water in Tanzania, or in Africa according to my ignorance at that time, is very scarce and expensive.

The first thing I begged for when I got to the staff house was drinking water. I finished a 1.5-liter bottle in a blink of an eye.

I stocked up drinking water in my room. Several days later, there was no water in the house, so I had to use that water to brush my teeth and keep clean.

Since then, water becomes my favorite drink.