Water

Over the last several years we have been involved with many clean water projects. Matt worked on wells in Malawi, we worked with our youth groups to raise money for wells, we were involved with the Rwanda Clean Water Project at Mars Hill, etc. I have seen the pictures of kids carrying large yellow containers of water from the river. Matt has walked with women in Malawi for miles to gather water in the pond and carry it miles back to their homes. You can do all those things and think, “Wow, that’s horrible.” But then you walk over to your sink and drink glass after glass of water and don’t think about it again.

We have been driving around town seeing people carrying containers of water. We are in the capitol city of Rwanda. This isn’t some little village in the middle of Africa. It really hits me when I come home and I turn on my faucet. I can turn on my faucet and there is fairly clear water that comes out. Yes, I have to boil it and then run it through a filtration system and it still tastes like you are licking a ceramic pot or a rock. But, I don’t have to walk for miles and then boil and filter my water.

The water situation is interesting. Each home has a water tank. Well at least the homes with running water. The city will fill the tank randomly so there will probably be times when we will not have water. Maybe even for a couple of days at a time. We only have hot water in the upstairs shower. None of the faucets, including the kitchen, have hot water. So, anytime I do dishes I have to boil 2 kettles of water and then add cold water from the faucet. I use some faucet water for washing dishes so that we can get our stomachs somewhat used to the water. I’m sure there will be times when we eat something that wasn’t washed properly so if we can get our stomachs used to it we might not get so sick. We only plug in the water heater or the water pump right before we take showers or baths to save electricity.

Enjoy a yummy glass of water from your tap...even those of you in So. Cal...and be grateful!

Water tank the back yard.

Water filter in the kitchen