THE man was submerged to his waist in the dark chocolate-colored water of a water hole that he had dug in the midst of what used to be the main body of the river which flows into the swamplands at its mouth. The area where the river used to flow is pitted with gaping holes. Both the man's hands were busily shaking a pan filled with sand and water which he would occasionally raise to his eyes in order to see what he had managed to dredge up. He was