September 2026 2

“Let’s just go and try again today, you never know we might be in luck”. He has been saying some variation of the same thing for the past month, but I’m so tired of living like this. He is always so optimistic and I suppose it’s just how kids are but I’m not sure for how long I can keep going on like this. I ask myself so often why we live here, it seems like every week there’s just something bad that happens or something just doesn’t seem to be working. But I know why we live here and it sucks because even though it’s as shitty as it is, it’s still better than most of the other regions. My mother had us move here a year ago, my sister got a job and she’s basically the one who provides for us, so it was more convenient to move with her. Regardless, even if we stayed we’d soon need to move because the water situation was getting worse and worse. She and my mum live in one part of town while my brother and I live in another part, I know it doesn’t sound right but that’s the only way to better our odds.

I say that because of the water situation, among all the other terrible things that keep happening, you’d think this place is a hub of misfortune. Just a few weeks ago we had a hairy caterpillar issue, they were everywhere and falling from the trees. They caused this terrible itch that couldn’t quite stop unless you soaked in water and there’s never enough water or maybe there’s too many people for the water to sustain. Regardless, it was such a terrible time, most of us just had to rub with wet cloths because no one would soak or even want to waste that much water even though they knew it would have helped. I know I keep saying the water situation and I’m not quite saying what it actually is. Let me say we don’t know who controls the water, it stopped flowing in the place we used to live in, that’s another reason why we moved. Most of the streams and rivers are dried up, I know some people went looking for those that haven’t but we can’t know if they ever made it. This place has different watering holes at least that’s what they call them, it’s like some tap or pipe with a sink but always some outlet that water comes out from.

There are several of these watering holes all around the area and they are numbered. Some people have been so selfish as to build around some of them so others don’t have access but there’s no use fighting about it because that’s not even the bad part. Water does not flow from these holes in the normal way you’d assume it would, it is a random system. Everyday water comes out from one watering hole and the only way we know is if the word spreads either by yelling or some people going around telling others. The pressure is very high but when everyone in the area is trying to get water it doesn’t quite seem so. Sometimes the lines are too long or the water gets cut off before everyone can get some. We’ve tried to make it work by at least having the first five people at the hole getting priority to do more like; washing and getting water for gardens but it’s still difficult to work through. I haven’t washed my clothes or had a good bath in months, you have to be wise about things, it’s better to have some water to drink and water the plants. You can wipe down your body but a time does comes when you need to actually do those things the right way.