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Students please explain what it felt like to collect and carry water.
Please read the amazing comments the students have written about today and their experiences.
Check out our reflections:
http://todaysmeet.com/globalwater
It felt hard to collect the water and then carry it around the school whlie tring to catch up to the group, it was also hard because our hands were freezing from collecting the water from puddles. It was hard walikng with wet shoes and wet clothes from the water leakinging over the side of the bucket. We lost most of our water for our families waiting at home for us.
Henley, it is good you have experienced something about collecting water. But some of you were carrying one bucket three or two students.
It felt hard but also painful to think about the people that have to carry it back to their home but then go back to getting water again. The water was very cold and maden our hands freeze, also while carring the water our clothes and shoes wet. It was sad because we were thinking about the people that have to do this everyday, and that struggle to get water for the long walk they have to do.
Tahlia, thank for letting us know how it felt carrying water, but if you hard to carry big containers on head like our children here, and walk very long distance then it would have felt very different.
As I was doing this terrible thing! I felt very sorry for every single person who dosn’t proper access to water because when I was doing it my cloths were getting wet and my feet were getting freazing! It was like me being exsactly the same as them but just walking along a straight path. They have to walk up hill down hill along cliff sides and through bushes! I can DEFFENETLY tell that they have to go through a lot more work to get POLUTED water! I was thinking that the whole way so I didn’t think I was doing exactlly what they were doing. But I did feel VERY sorry for them. When I got back from the long walk, my arms were in ageny and I couldn’t even type properly for a few minutes. It was DEFFENETLY one of my hardest challenge I have done. Also with the people with hrdly NO access to water.
Ashton, you have made me laugh. What you call a terrible thing, here it part of life. Either you like it all not you have too. Remember our terrain is not flat, we have so many steep hill which you have to climb while carrying water.
Thank you very much for comenting Mrs Josiline, and I am sorry that you have to climb so many hills to get there! I hope in there future everything will change for you and your village! Thank you!
I felt sooooooooo bad! I cant belive that african women and children have to do this every day!!!!!!! The first people to carry it on the pole was Rece and I. then it was Sam and Ligham. I was soooooo relived when we had finished!!!
It felt really painful and exausting to carry the water around where we do the run.
Children and women probably carry water back to their houses and walk longer distance to get water. And I would not be able to do it two or three times a day!! I feel sorry for the people around the world who have to do this lots of times a day.
Sam, this is amazing when you say you can’t do it two to three times. We don’t enjoy it but we have no option. We have to carry big containers so that we can go fetching few times and to save time. In some places here, fetching water takes a half day or the whole day walking. I know to you this unbelievable not until you will get a chance to come to Uganda.
When we were collecting the water we had to use our hands, mine felt as cold as a ice block!!! We had to use our hands because it was the only way to collect it because we had no other resourses. When I was getting the water out of the puddle I couldn’t believe that was what some people have to drink everyday. We kept putting more and more dirty water in and I thought about how people have to do thisw everyday no matter what the weather is no matter what the colour of the water is they still have to get it and drink it. When we had to walk around the school carrying the full buckets they were heavy and i thought I was goinIg to spill it all other myself or drop it. I couldn’t carry it any longer by the time I got to the end. But now I feel sorry for the children and adults who some times have to do it twice a day!!! We didnt even go very far and we still struggled with it, and other children whos youger then us have to do probably 10 times that for a drink of water that could harm their health but they need to drink because you can’t go 3 days with out water.
To some of us what mater is to get water, whether dirty or not. Thanks Ashlee for sharing.
The buckets were so heavy and i felt so tired.I never knew how actually heavy they were. Walking around the school wasnt that much compared to what other people do. I did feel sorry for them but when i expercied it i just felt sick because the water was absloutely disgusting. Just looking at the water made me sick and thinking if i had to drink that to stay alive. The water was brown and it was freezing and made my hands numb. Walking around the entire school hurt. Sincemyarms were acheing and my hands were completely frozen and numb. At the start i didnt think it would be that hard collecting dirty water out of puddles.And carrying the water. But it was. I really undertsand them now and actually how hard thisis to do. I cant beleive that people have drink sickening brown water.I was very suprised of how dirty that water actually was. When i was walking i spilled it so many times, and there was barley anything in my container when i got to the end.I spilled heaps onmyself too. Its terrible that some kids have to do this about twice a day!
But Vanessa, your buckets were smaller compared to what our children carry for long distances.
Joseline we struggled to find buckets we searched the whole school for the ones we found. We waste water here and I wanted my students to not use tap water for this activity because they were actually very uncomfortable with dirty water which made me happy because I wanted them to feel uncomfortable.
I felt exhausted to carry water around the whole school. Ashton and I worked as a team after half way because if we worked alone we would get wet, one of our ways to go around the school was go slowly so the water wouldn’t splash back. Another was to carry the bucket together because we’d be much quicker than working alone. I was so wet I felt like I was the water and I was isolated! I feel devastated for us carrying like two kilos and other countries like Uganda I think it was were carrying like forty times the weight.
When Ashton and I were filling the buckets the water was SO COLD! I felt like I turned into ice and my hands were numb. To see the water dirty I felt extremely horrible because when others drink the water they’ll probably get an illness.
Here in fetching water there is no working as a team, every child has to carry his/her own container of water.
Yes it must be hard for the child to carry at least 20 kilos going up hill, down hill and walking about 6km.
Before I started to carry the buckets I thought that it was going to be fun and I thought it was going to be light but when we started to carry the water it was so HEAVY which I DID NOT like.
Because it was so heavy we had to tip half of the bucket out, and it was also very very hard because on our bucket we had no handle it was so DIFFICULT!
Stephanie Brown, Mrs Pearce and I took it in turns with the bucket because it was so HEAVY!!!
We also took in turns with videoing with the camera because we talking in turns with the bucket.
At the end I was like ” YAY IT IS FINALLY OVER my life is now beginning with a new life!”
At hte beginning I was like ” How are they moving so fast?”
Trinity, thanks for having participated, here we find no fun in fetching water , it so hard but we can’t avoid it.
Man, I had muddy water all down my socks, a bit of a straned backside, It was extreame heavy at the start and by the time I got back most of the water was gone. I am just so happy that I did not have to drink it. If I did I would probably puke! No affence Mrs Joseline I know how you feel but I feel so sorry about you guys 🙁 I wish I could supply freash water for your school at the moment I feel devistated that you guys have to put up with this! I hope you get clean water soon and have more time for learning and not doing a huge walk to get water.
Ben
Ben, I think that the last bit that you said would get to their hearts if they got to read this.
Carissa, what you are saying is true and we have read it.
Ben thanks for sharing your experience and how you felt. But your experience cannot compared with what we face here, ours is really worse, children have to suffer collecting water every day carrying on head, and as you have said they find having no enough time for learning. Your is my wish BEN, not until we can get clean water at school, my students wont be saved from long walk to collect water, thought dirty but we cannot do without it.
Hi Joseline,
Today it was important for me to have my students have some experience. Yes we are very blessed here but their comments probably don’t reflect how they actually felt. They talked about today no where near comparing to what children experience in other countries. They took this very seriously, they want to make a difference but they don’t know how. I can show as many videos and pictures but today we had to try and engage the students in reality. They realized they couldn’t cope, that they could share but in real life there was no sharing. They can never understand but they wanted a chance to.
I felt like I was’nt me and I was someone else. The water splashed all over me and I felt icy. The exsperience for me was that I was’nt used to get water on me in winter. I felt that the kids that fech the water do it way longer than we did and they might of carryed it hevyer.
Why did you feel that it wasn’t you?
Brittney, here fetching water has to be done everyday and walking long distance and you have to line up for some good hours waiting.It not just walking and you pick water, many people you will find on the same water source waiting to fetch.
This experience gave me a reality check.
Understanding what’s actually happening in the new developing countries is horrible.
Just walking around holding dirty, un-sanitised water was exhausting and realising people hold it for hours made my complaining nothing.
I can’t even begin to imagine to feel what they feel. They collect disgusting water which will eventually end their life. But without it, they die within a few days. That’s why they rely on this type of water.
We complain to our parents “Our waters not hot enough for my shower!”, while they wish just to have clean, sanitised water which they easily access. They hope everyday for someone to hear their wishes, their dreams. Not enough people are actually taking their time to understand what is happening! Innocent lives are leaving us because we aren’t doing anything about it..
This made me think, that the public need to make a difference. Organisations are relying on us as public, to sponsor and change the way of this world! If we keep living in a world, knowing that people are dying what type of people are we!!
If we don’t make a change, they will eventually be nothing to change. All of them will pass away.
Today we had to fill up an ice-cream bucket with our bare hands because we had nothing to fill them up with. When we have finished them we had to then fill up a bucket using the ice-cream bucket to fill it. We had to walk around the whole school to see what it felt like to be one of those people who have to do that 4 hours a day. The buket was heavy and hard to make the water stay in. I felt devistating that they had to make a journey from dirty, filthy water to collect it for their village even though that water isn’t good. Carring it was really hard because when the water came out from the sides of the bucket, it made my hands slip because of the water. When we were collecting the water we wern’t allowed to to use clean water to fill the buckets, we had to use water from UTTERLY DISGUSTING PUDDLES!
By Bonnie A
Today when I carried the water, the metal handle weighed down my arm, I could see everybody else struggling. I could also see the dirty and disgusting water in the bucket. I could constantly hear everybody struggling and complaining that it was so hard (I did aswell), I could hear me and my partner saying very amazing facts. I could feel the pain rushing through my hand and body, I could feel the filthy water splashing all over my leg. I could smell the dirty water rising up to my face as it was splashing everywhere, I could smell the wind flying past as I was feeling the pain. I was thinking “is this the pain that they have to live through every single day, or do they just get used to it?” and I was also wondering “why can’t the men do this because they are a lot stronger?”
I could taste my warm breaths as I was a bit puffed from carrying all of this amount of water.
My buddy worked with me, and we did succeed with our objective. We had splashed some water on the way because we wanted to see how fast we could get it done.
The learning intention today was to experience what the women felt doing this 3 hours a day. We found a great strategy doing this, when we were filling up the buckets, we scooped up the other container and poured the water in the bigger bucket and kept rpeating this process until the bucket was filled up.
Our learning intention for the walking was to experience the pain for walking with the buckets that the women do. Ernie (my partner) and I stopped every corner to switch holding the bucket. It very was hard.
Before I started to carry the buckets I thought that it was going to be fun and I thought it was going to be light but when we started to carry the water it was so HEAVY which I DID NOT like.
Because it was so heavy we had to tip half of the bucket out, and it was also very very hard because on our bucket we had no handle it was so DIFFICULT!
Trinity-Lee, Mrs Pearce and I took it in turns with the bucket because it was so HEAVY!!!
We also took in turns with videoing with the camera because we talking in turns with the bucket.
At the end I was like ” YAY IT IS FINALLY OVER my life is now beginning with a new life!”
At the beginning I was like ” How are they moving so fast?”
Carrying the water was highly difficult, and I stuggled a lot with the work, and I can’t imagine how the children in Africa do all that extreme struggling, and still get on with thier day. If I were one of the thousands of children that do that work, I would feel like I am a slave under a evil king/queen. Since now I have expirienced the extreme job, now I am going to donate a dozen life straws, for people in need. The main struggle was, have to collect all the water, and not spill it all, or more hard work would be up ahead. During the huge walk we did, the bucket made me and my partner put all our muscle into carring all that thilthy, dirty and disgusting water. Since I have experienced what kids in Africa do, I now thank god every day for what I have.
When me and Ben went to collect the water we had to look for a good place with water. We went to a puddle with rocks in it because it was in a rock path. When i had to put the water in the bucket I had to use my hands and the water was like ice which was just melting. It was that cold. When it was in the bucket it was a light white and brown. It had lots of rocks in it and I had to try and get as much rocks out as I can. My hands were so red it was like I was sunburnt. When we tryed to carry the big bucket we couldnt lift it up so we had to tip some out to make it lighter. When we were carring it around the school it kept splashing every where. I kept getting the stinky water in my shoes. My feet are drenched. The water stank really bad. I fell sorry for someone who has to drink this water. I am now grateful that I have clean fresh water to drink clean myself and to wash my clothes. It took us about 15 mintues to walk around the whole school. When we do the run it takes only 7 minutes. Now my arm really hutrs ahter carring the water around the scholl. I have never done that before. I do hope that the countries with no clean water have clean water soon.
I saw everyone struggling under the weight the putrid water applied as we walked around the school. I smell the horrific smell of the mucky water wafering up to my nose. I fell the disgusting water spilling over my bucket on to my nylon and polyester school jacket as I walk. I taste the horrible disgusting mucky brown and black water as the water spills out of the round tin dirty bucket. I feel a chill shiver down my back as the putrid water spills over my body. I feel the utterly disgusting brown water spill and splash on on my wet feet. My jacket is soaked as I finished the walk around the school. I feel disgusted that we are not doing anything to help everyone who doesn’t have access to clean pure water.
When I was carrying the buckets of water I feel really sad for the people who have to carry the bucket and how much pain they probably have when through. When I was filling up the buckets the thought the water was cold, I thought that is was hard to find a good puddle and when you found a good puddle it was really hard work to fill up the buckets to the top. After all that I still can no believe that is what they have to go through just to get water to drink even though that water is ground water.
Wow I hope everybody had fun and I also hope nobody got dirty :P.
Well to be honest nasy600 after that experience I was isolated from the water because it spilt all over me I was so scared to see my dad for what I did to my shirt. Lucky I wasn’t in trouble. 😄😄😄
it was hard carrying water in buckets but i had help by Jay. I got really really sachet i put the bucket on my head. Jay and I had to walk around the school 1 time to feel if we were people in need of water. We filmed while we were walking and collecting water were ever we can find it. (snapshot) i smell dirty muddy water flicking in my nose and in my mouth, i feel sad for all the people in the places that have absolutely none water, i also feel sore when i carry the buckets. I think of all the people who needs to get the water from the mountains/muddy water. i think i see sticks flouting. how sad
Reblogged this on 56cclassroomblog and commented:
Mrs Joyce’s Inquiry group had the chance to experience what it might feel like to have to collect water. How would you feel?
It is amazing to see how other people feel when they are in someone else’s shoes.
Reblogged this on Rennae's Blog and commented:
My grade had a experience of a life time. We had to use our hands to fill buckets up with water from the puddles around the school. When I was putting the water in the bucket my hands turned red because it was so cold.
Experiencing the true way of fetching Water is certainly the best lesson ever.
What are your conclusions?