I just got dinner ready. Rinsed off the potatoes, peeled them, rinsed them off again. I washed the broccoli and carrots and filled the steamer to cook them. Added water to the potatoes and put them on the stove.
Before dinner we played tennis. Came home, and four of us had showers. While we were there we were drinking bottled water.
Just like any other day. We don't even think about water, do we? But what would we do if we couldn't turn on the taps?
I live in Ontario, Canada. We're surrounded by huge rivers, amazing lakes for cottages, and water everywhere. We often bike down to the waterfront to eat our lunch. In the spring, we run the risk of flooding. I can't imagine a place in the world with more clean, fresh drinking water.
In Kenya, at the orphanage where we often travel (and where we're leading a medical team next March) they're currently in water crisis. The orphanage is home to almost 1000 kids, and the river has run dry. The kids bathe in the river, but they have a well for drinking water. The well is almost out.
You can't ship water. It's really expensive, and it evaporates, and all kinds of problems. At the orphanage they have all kinds of methods of collecting and saving water. If the rain ever came, even a few milimeters, they'd be okay. But there's been no rain.
They'll probably do a big fundraising drive soon for $100,000 to drill four more bore holes for deeper wells that can supply them and the village, and I'll kick in a bunch, and I'm sure they'll raise the money.
But I just can't imagine living worrying about water. We are so, so blessed. We're blessed with so many things, but water is the basis for everything, isn't it? Can you imagine relying on a river for your drinking water and your washing water, and then watching that river run dry? I guess our ancestors dealt with that frequently, at least in the midwestern states, but it's so beyond my consciousness, and yet that's what so much of the world deals with.
Tonight I'll probably take a bubble bath. I love bubble baths. We might install a hot tub later in the summer. But before that, I think I'll give a bunch of money to drill them some bore holes. I wish I could ship them our Moira River, but I can't. Life sometimes just isn't fair, and it makes me sad.
About Me: I'm a Christian author of a bunch of books, and a frequent speaker to women's groups and marriage conferences. Best of all, I love homeschooling my daughters, Rebecca and Katie. And I love to knit. Preferably simultaneously.
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