The water situation in my family compound has been rapidly deteriorating since the end of the cold season. The combination of last-6-inches-of-the-well-dirty water and an invasion by swimming ants has rendered the water in our well unusable for anything except washing the goat poop off the bottom of my Chacos sandals. Since I am far too cheap to pay for water from the neighborhood robinet (water tap), I have been relying on my good looks and mad Pulaar skills to sweet talk the neighbors into letting me pull water from their wells—really anyone will let me pull water, they just want to laugh at the white girl while she attempts to carry 10 liters of water in a bucket on top of her head.

The other day, I was with my sister at our neighbor’s compound pulling water for laundry, when I noticed something floating in the water. Confused, I called my sister over and asked her what it was. Unsure herself, she took the bucket and string from me and with a flick of her wrist was able to coax the mysterious object into the bucket. We pulled the bucket out, and to our surprise inside was a 6 inch long dead fish. Yes, a very very dead fish.

Now, let me explain how weird this was. First, fish do not live in wells. And second, no Senegalese person would ever throw a fish down a well—especially a big one (they would eat it). I kept asking my sister and my neighbors how a fish got into the well, but no one seemed to have any idea. So, how does a dead fish get into a well? And more importantly, how long has it been in there? I’ve been using that water to drink and bathe with… maybe I should just pay the 5 cents to get water from the public robinet.

Thirsty?