A Hard Life

On a road in Botswana. These 2 teens are 15 and 16, and married. They live in a thatched-shack village, with no electricity, running water, plumbing, and only one outhouse for the whole small village. One side of their 8x10 "house", shared with 5 other family members, is a cardboard panel they found along the street and the roof is an old piece of sheetmetal.

Their main job in the community is to drive these poor creatures 15 miles each way every day to the closest well, to get water for the village.

This time last year the well, which many villages depend on, was nearly dry, so they are very worried for this year

We gave them some money, and a half-full 5 gallon full container of water - as much for the container to haul more water in than the water itself.
Things like this were for me, by far, the hardest part of our Africa trip.

D800
2014:05:24 03:12:50
80-400mm @ 80mm
1/640 sec, f/11
Mode: Av
Metering: Spot
Exp comp: -2/3
ISO: 800
White balance: Auto
Flash: Off