I only laugh so as to keep from weeping

Yes, I am entitling this blog entry after a line from a Knight's Tale. (What? It's a great movie)

To be honest, I am rarely on the verge of tears when I resort to laughing at inappropriate moments. It is only in retrospect that I realize I am laughing at things that really aren't very funny. Or funny at all, for that matter. That being said, laughter is great preventative medicine. It keeps you in a bright mood when you would otherwise run the risk of becoming bitter and frustrated. So I want to share an example of the times "I only laugh so as to keep from weeping."

One Friday morning, I left my house with my empty rubber bucket in hand and headed towards the pump. Friday is the Muslim holy day so we don't have school. This means for me Friday is "brooking" day - or the day I use my two rubber tubs and a little plastic bag of powdered "Africana" soap to wash all  my clothes. I was never a fan of doing laundry in the US even though it is ridiculously easy to throw all your things into a washing machine, but for some reason I enjoy the methodical process of scrubbing my clothes by hand and beating them against a rock to work out any stains. Thus, with my bucket in tow I proceeded to the well to get my brooking water. Nine year old Ibrahim stopped me to ask in Mende where I was going. I replied that I was going to get water, to which Ibrahim answered something that sounded to me like "there is no water."

"What?" I asked, thinking that perhaps I had misunderstood him.
"Wata no de." He repeated in Krio, thus I clearly got the message that there was no water at the pump.
"Okay, I'll go across the street."
"No, that pump is broken too."
"So where do you go to get water?"
"We can't get water."
"You can't get water?"
"No, we no de get again!" (We won't get water again!)

For some reason I found this completely hysterical. A little boy was telling me that they would never get water again in the village. It was only after suppressing my laughter that I realized it wasn't actually a funny situation. The idea that the entire village could be without a clean water source was actually rather horrifying. Of course, this was not the case. There are other water wells on the outskirts of the village so I went there to fetch my water. I did decide to put off brooking my clothes not knowing when the pump would be fixed. I figured it was important to conserve water, since wells run the risk of going dry, especially now that it hasn't rained for a few months. I was mildly surprised that the pump nearest to my house was fixed within 48 hours. Apparently the threat of "we no de get again" was not a laughing matter, so people got straight to the business of fixing the well.