Village life - part 2

Most of our villages are located close to a river, which gives us access to water for washing and cooking. Now because river water is often dirty, we can’t always rely on it for drinking so we drink beer a lot of the time. We cook our food on an open fire set in the middle of the house, there’s no hole in the roof so it gets a bit smoky and it can be quite dangerous too because sometimes sparks can fly up and set fire to the roof. We usually cook pottage, which is a stew made from peas, vegetables and sometimes meat and we mop it all up with nice bread that we make from barley or wheat. Now if we want to go to the toilet, we have to go outside of the house where there’ a hole dug in the ground with a small hut built over it. It can get a bit smelly in there and when the pit becomes full of poo, we simply dig another hole and move the hut. We use a hand full of dried moss to wipe our botties, it’s so absorbent and nice and soft.