We’ve had an inconvenience the past three days when our town issued a boil water order because they’d found E. coli in one of the town’s water reservoirs.
Water had to be boiled at least one minute before we could use it for drinking, food preparation, brushing our teeth, washing our dishes, washing our hands… everything.
The amount of water you need to boil and then cool off to hand-wash dishes for a family of four, and then rinse them in boil and cooled water, well… it is pretty labor intensive!
We purchased two gallon sized jugs of bottled water so I had containers to refill with boiled and cooled water to keep in the fridge, and everything else I boiled and cooled, boiled and cooled.
The kids didn’t get baths.
Cooking was a huge hassle. Cleaning a bigger one.
It was really, really, really inconvenient.
But lucky for me, it was really, really, really temporary. And I had the time and resources to boil the water and make it safe. It was inconvenient. Not deadly.
There are a lot of people in this world who never have access to clean water, and I feel for those mothers who have to worry that the water their children drink is going to make them sick or cost them their lives.
It just so happens that at the very same time my family was using boiled water because of an E. Coli risk, an endurance athlete and health specialist I follow on twitter, Sarah Stanley was running ONE HUNDRED MILES to raise money for Blood:Water, a grass-roots charity that helps provide clean water to communities in Africa. (It’s also her birthday!)
I donated $50.00 to her Blood:Water run. Will you donate, even a little? She’s running right now and hasn’t met her $1,000 goal. I’d love to see her get there. $5 would help. $10 would help. $1 would help.
Donate to Blood:Water in Sarah’s Name Here
I just learned that our boil water order has been lifted, and my tap water is clean and safe again.
I’m so lucky.
Donate $25 or more to Sarah’s page and mention me in the comments and Greg will MATCH YOUR DONATION. (Up to Sarah’s goal!)