24. The new team of the well

Its been a month since we started work. Ibrahim, Ali and I often return to Timbuktu but the workers have to stay here and they are tired. Some of them have also become listless and the work is not proceeding as it should.
Ibrahim has decided to send half the team home and bring fresh reinforcements here.

The new team has arrived. They are 5 very determined-looking fellows who have just returned after finishing a 70-meter well. They have years of experience with sand wells and are Ibrahim’s original team.

Ibrahim explains to the old and new assembled workers what he expects of them.

Ibrahim admonishes the head of the old team for not having been able to maintain men’s cohesion.

However, we have reached the water and there is now enough to make a small pond, after we have filled the men’s tanks and the animals’ drinking troughs.

A pond is a whole new thing in this desert and we have to force the animals towards the pond because they all run straight towards the concrete drinking troughs, passing in front of the pond without stopping.

The birds are smarter and come alone. They seem to thank us for quenching their thirst by ducking their heads up and down.