Awaiting the cat’s paws
April 7, 2010
This morning I did something I had fervently hoped I would never do: I dropped my bucket AND my rope into my cistern. Only two weeks ago that wouldn’t have been such a horrible occurence as the water level was within arm’s reach. Now, however, the water has moved down enough that a broom handle isn’t even enough.
If ever there was a day for me to make such a stupid mistake, this is (obviously) the perfect one. I just got home yesterday after 13 hours of travel. The entire two weeks before that were full of sleep deprivation and the dynamic chaos of helping at a week-long English/spring break camp for kids. I can’t really describe my exhaustion at the moment. It makes me feel almost sick. My brain isn’t functioning. On top of that, what little activity my brain was able to conjure up was focused off in the distance (back in Ouarzazate to be exact), leaving nothing for the task at hand. I walked to my cistern, found my bucket sitting on top of the hatch, assumed I had left it tied to the opening, and simply chucked it in. I never leave my bucket, and I don’t usually tie it down except for this one time right before I left town. If only I had connected the dots before I let it all go…
Oh, well. Now I found myself waiting for the arrival of what we apparently call “timoushioun“–little cats, or cat’s paws. At least it has a fun name. As one man joked, now I get to learn how things are done out here in the tamazirt, the countryside. Reasonably enough people take metal hooks tied to a rope and try to fish their buckets out again.
I have a date with the paws tomorrow morning. Thankfully I have a tiny bit of water left in my house to get me through the night.
Fadma came over this afternoon with the aforementioned cat’s paws and made short work of the matter. Two quick swings of the hooks down into the water, and up came the bucket’s rope. All I did was let her in the door and lift the rope up off of the hooks as she brought it to the hatch opening. I’m impressed. And now I wanna buy my own set of paws just cuz they look cool (and I’ll probably need them again sometime).
