Fill It Up! (Open syllable)
Adapted from "Nyamvula is Thirsty" by Timothy Mfana Mongwe and Nompumelelo Mdluli. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
She would really like a drink. There are no taps in her house. She needs to get water from outside. There has not been any rain in a while.
She tips up the pail that she uses to fetch water. It only has one drop left. She will have to go for a walk to find more.
First she tries the pump, which is fed from a well that is close to her house. The pump is dry. She will need to look somewhere else.
She goes and tries the tank. The tank can store a lot of water when it rains. She turns the tap to find that there is none left.
She goes to the creek, but the bed is dry. The trees needed to suck up all of the water so that they could to get through the dry season.
She walks a long way to get to the dam. When she gets there, she is stunned. The dam is dry as well. It is a bad season.
She lives near the sea, but she knows that she cannot drink that water. It has too much salt. Drinking seawater would make her sick.
She spots one, dark cloud above her. She knows that it is no use to get upset, but she yells at the cloud for not bringing rain.
More clouds join the first one. There are flashes of light and big bangs. She runs home again and hides until the storm is over.
When the sun comes out the next day, she walks out to see that the well, creek, tank and dam have all been filled! Time to have a drink.