Lost Items Down Wells

Just a quick funny story I want to share:

The other night I get home and need to draw water from the well outside my house. It's dark, there's not electricity, I'm tired... so I'm not totally paying attention. I lower the bucket into the well and start feeding the rope through my hands, waiting for the *splash* down below. But all of a sudden the rope picks up speed and the end slides through my hands- and I loose the bucket! Usually it's tied on, but the guard had just bought a brand new bucket and I LOST it down the well! Oh my gosh, I was so embarassed. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or hide inside my house. I was way too embarassed to tell my guard (I mean, only an American would actually LOOSE the bucket down the well, right? Not so African right now, are we?) so I called my friend Ama Sara ... "hey, are you at your house? yes? you need to come here, we have a problem!" Poor Ama Sara thinks something is seriously wrong and he runs to the house to see me inside crying-laughing hysterically trying to throw out enough french words to explain the situation. I'm so embarassed but the guy's a total sweetheart and reassured me that this happens all the time to people. They even have these things you attach to the rope to catch lost buckets ... he brought his over to my house for me. Seriously though, what a relief. It was a minor crisis. But quickly resolved.

It made me wonder though, what's the mortality rate for kids and animals falling down wells? Or things like shoes, or cell phones? It's something to think about...