It was 8:30am and my phone alarm was playing “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley. Painstakingly, I rolled over towards my bedside table and hit the snooze.

It was Saturday the 18th of March and I had to get up and go to the Walk for Water at Parco Sempione.

I have to say, at that moment I was thinking I’ve spent Saturday mornings doing better things, like sleeping, sleeping, and have I mentioned, sleeping? Nevertheless, I dragged myself out of bed, changed into comfortable clothes, had a few bites of breakfast and ran out the door.

I got to the meeting point at around 9:10am and found some of my friends. I was surprised there were so many students from different years of the high school. At 9:30am we started walking. It was a pleasant morning, sunny and and a little cool, although nobody felt it. We were all hauling 6L of water on our backs. After the first 20 minutes of walking, I started feeling the weight of the bottles. Our group of about 25-30 students spread out, some were faster and some were lagging behind, but time flew. We were having fun, walking and talking and before we even noticed, the walk came to an end. “Wow, I think that was the most exercise I have ever had on a Saturday morning,” I overheard someone say.

At the end, we all gathered next to a little truck that was selling refreshments in the park. As we cooled down, I watched as some left, others got ready to go home, and some even decided to stay and continue relaxing in the park.

All around it wasn’t a bad experience, in fact I enjoyed myself a lot and I’m happy that I went and walked. We learned how millions of people around the world feel every day walking to find safe drinking water. 

I hope our contribution will help the people in Wajir, Kenya. The ‘Safe Water for Wajir’ project protects wells from E-coli and specifically helps the Makaror Mixed Day Technical Secondary School.

We raised €1068!