Water

Water. The overwhelming importance of water really becomes clear at this time of the year. With the rainy season still to come here, we are going through another year of severe water shortages. We’ve been lucky to get a trickle inside the house most evenings over the past seven weeks. Several times we’ve gone two or three days with absolutely no water, and most of the time, we have to fill up pots and pans in the front yard and use them to fill up the bathtubs and sinks. My wife has been doing laundry in the river across the road. The floors haven’t been washed in weeks. I regularly go without a bath during the weekends so that the kids have enough water to wash before they go to school. I’ve gotten used to be grubby all weekend. The plants in our garden are beginning to die, and we struggle to keep our many animals supplied with water. With all this in mind, I just happened to catch an interview on Asia Talk with the rapper Jay-Z. He’s involved in working to be clean water to poor countries. It was interesting to hear him talk about the fundamental importance of water. As difficult as our water problems have made our lives over the past seven weeks, we’re fortunate enough to have the money to buy bottled water to drink. I can only imagine what it’s like for people who have our water problems and aren’t able to obtain drinking water.

I’m going to be doing some research on water over the next few weeks and see what I can come up with.