Skit to Perform

Cast: One adult (man or woman); One youth (girl or boy)

Stage is simple set, with a chair and some sports equipment, like basketballs and soccer balls, lying around. At one end, use a waist-high cardboard box to depict a water fountain. Youth carries a backpack with a water bottle inside.

YOUTH: (from off stage) C’mon, Dad (Mom)! Just a few more steps and we’re there . .
(Adult and youth come onto stage, adult staggers with exhaustion, sweat dripping . . . youth looks barely winded.)

YOUTH: (pulls bottle of water from backpack; drops backpack on the floor, takes a drink, burps and looks satisfied)

ADULT: (staggers to water fountain, and starts to drink . . . gets a good taste of the water and makes a face, spits) Bleh! That’s nasty!

YOUTH: (laughs) I just bring my own. I should have warned you.

ADULT: I don’t remember it tasting like that when I went to school here.

YOUTH: And what century was that?

ADULT: Hey, you were alive in the last century too, you know. (collapses in the chair, in mock exhaustion, sags in chair, head back, arms outstretched)

YOUTH: That was a good run, Dad (Mom). When was the last time you did something that exhilarating?

ADULT: (raises head to answer weakly) Exhilarating? That was exhilarating? (drops head back)

YOUTH: Sure, you know. Blood-pumping, cardiovascular exercise and all that.

ADULT: They didn’t have exhilaration in the last century. (struggles to stand, and staggers to water fountain again)

YOUTH: I wouldn’t. (warning tone . . . reaches in back pack and pulls out water bottle) Here, have a drink of this.

ADULT: (downs it in one long draw)

YOUTH: (watches in awe, then complains) Hey!

ADULT: (hands back the empty bottle) What? There’s more right over there. (points to the water fountain)

YOUTH: (looks annoyed)

ADULT: (more seriously) You know. I do a little exercise for fun, and I’m completely winded. But our teacher was saying in the adult Sunday school class last week that some people — especially women — walk for four or five hours every day just getting water for daily needs.

YOUTH: I hope it tastes better than that. (points at water fountain)

ADULT: That’s the thing. They go to all that trouble, and the water may still make them sick. The teacher said one in six people in the world does not have access to clean water — not even water like the kind we refuse to drink.

YOUTH: Well, we’ve got enough (holds up bottle) MOST of the time.

ADULT: Yeah. I read somewhere that we use 25 times the amount used by people in Senegal. I’m real proud of that! (sarcastic)

YOUTH: Senegal? You mean out on the Eastern tip of Africa on the Equator? That Senegal? What could that possibly have to do with me? Gee Dad (Mom). Why are you so serious all the time!

ADULT: All the time? If I were serious all the time, you would not see me running around a high school track with my kid as if I thought I were 25 again.

YOUTH: Running? You were running? (laughs) Let’s go home. I’m thirsty. And I’m NOT drinking that water. (points at fountain)

ADULT: (tosses the empty water bottle to youth) Get used to it, Senegal. (pause)
What if the tables were turned? What if we really did have to struggle for a measly drink of water — and then when we got it, it tasted nasty or made us sick?

YOUTH: OK. (sits down) I’ll bite. What if? Well, first, I’ll bet you’d be in better shape for all the walking down to the local watering hole. But I bet you’d figure out a way to send me to get the water just as soon as I was big enough to carry a jug.

ADULT: Count on it. But look at it this way: you wouldn’t be cramming for Monday morning exams on Sunday night. I will bet you wouldn’t even be in school.

YOUTH: You always find that silver lining behind the dark cloud, don’t you? (more serious) To be honest? It really bothers me, Dad (Mom). I mean, in this country, we seem to get more than our share of everything in the world. But what are we supposed to do? Pack up the leftovers and ship them to the Sudan? I just don’t understand how we fix it.

ADULT: (looks at youth with admiration) Well, noticing the problem is a start. And there are a lot of things we can do: like pay attention to our own wastefulness and over-consumption; like get informed about the situation so we can make good decisions about how to help the most; like pray for people. (pause) I also like the idea of participating in the offering we are collecting at church: the Week of Compassion offering.

YOUTH: Yes. We’re collecting money in the youth group for that offering. It sounds like it supports a lot of disaster prevention and intervention all over the world. I heard we sent a bunch of money to South Asia after the tsunamis in December 2004. I guess even too much water can be a bad thing, too. There sure is a lot of trouble in the world around water.

ADULT: Yeah. Sometimes it seems like the flood of need is so overwhelming that our help is just a drop in the bucket. But so many people and so many churches participate in this offering that all those drops seem to add up. (adult stands there wistfully for a bit)

YOUTH: Dad (Mom)?

ADULT: Yeah.

YOUTH: (a little sheepish) Uh, I kinda need to go home to study . . . Monday exams, you know. Can we go?

ADULT: (picks up backpack and tosses it at youth) Sure. I’ll race you. (exits stage)

YOUTH: (shakes head as adult trots out . . . then calls after adult) I’ll give you a head start. (leans over and takes a drink from the fountain. Makes a face) Bleh. That’s just nasty. (pauses in a moment of reflection, wipes his/her mouth)
But at least it won’t kill me. (exits stage behind adult as if heading home)

Source: One Great Hour of Sharing/For congregational use