She Walked Miles for Water — Then Washed a Stranger's Feet With It

Well, I get to the top of the hill and I'm met by a woman that has a large basin of water.

And she puts the water down on the ground and takes her headscarf off and rips a chunk off.

And of course, I don't speak Swahili.

She doesn't speak English.

Basically, we come to the understanding she wants me to wash my feet.

So I bent down and I start washing my feet and she starts slapping my hands away.

She wanted to wash my feet.

And painstakingly, you know, cleaned around each toenail and between my toes.

And I was just kind of dumbfounded and said, tried to motion that I would do it and she would not allow me to help her.

Then she tears another piece off to dry each of my feet.

And basically she'd walked two to three miles to the river to get water for her family.

And walking back home, she encounters a white person who she's never met and decides she's going to hush my feet.

It wasn't until I was really processing it later that evening in my journal that she got that water for her family.

She used it for me.

And then she had to walk two or three miles to get more water and walk two or three miles back to take care of her family that evening.