Water and Life- part 2

   Well, we got you to the water in the last installment. That was really just the beginning. Next you must fill up all the bottles and containers that you brought, without putting your feet in the spring and without stirring up the silt in the bottom of the pool. There is definitely a science to it and and Mae had it down pat (pictured below).

{filling water containers}

   Now the hard work begins. All the full bottles are loaded into a bilum. The the girl (Mae in this case) places the strap on her head and walks back with it. This load could easily weight 70lb. And you have to cross a stony river 3 times. It is an amazing and difficult task that is preformed everyday by countless PNG girls and now Mae too. I did not even see where our water came from until we had been there for two weeks. The women and girls in PNG (and mine by extension) are some of the toughest hard working people that you will ever meet.