Well, well

Well, well.

An extraordinary thing happened today. I was pulling up a half filled bucket of water from the well at the studio, and Madou, the guardian of the Atelier I am staying at, bless him, decided to show me how to tip the bucket at the bottom, to get more water (this I already know having drawn water in his absence many, many times!) I gave him the rope and he jerked it, yes the bucket tipped more, and took more water, but with that weight extra he let the rope slip out of his hands and down it fell to the bottom. No rope to pull up the bucket any more.

Now that well is deep, and dark, perhaps 25 feet deep. He looked surprised that I didn’t have the rope in my hand. Hmmm.

Scratching heads time. I started looking at the longest poles in the garden next door. Could I rig up a hook on the end with wire? Nope. Madou shouted to his cousin Yubah who just happened to be watering his garden, to come and help. As he approached, Madou explained and it became very clear that he was going to climb down. I tried talking them out of it, in my moderate to awful French. “The water at the bottom was deep, yes?”. “Yes”. I admitted I was afraid. What if he was to drown at the bottom, would we ever be able to forgive ourselves. “Oh its OK, Yubah is strong, he will do it“. However much I tried to persuade  them not to send him down, I couldn’t win, so I grabbed my camera and all I could do was hope that he would be OK.

Madou, Téy and I watched him climb in and lower himself in to the ‘pitch dark, narrow concrete tube that forms the walls of the well. Somehow he found foot and hand holds and being a strong lad, he got down in next to no time. I have to say I definitely don’t recommend doing this EVER.

I can hardly believe he did it. I was both petrified and fascinated, clicking away. At the bottom he answered to my feeble ca va? Oui. He held himself above the water and fished about for the rope, once caught, emptied the bucket, placed it between his teeth and commenced climbing up again steadily. I could hardly breath, I was so terrified that he’d fall or never get out again. Then there he was, head about to pop up over the brim of the well, smiling. What a relief!