Back to safe drinking water. . .

After two weeks of posting about SB1070, I am returning to another one of my favorite themes, safe drinking water.

My former co-worker and "hermano" Aaron Walling is now working for an amazing water org called "A Child's Right." He is in Nepal this week installing some water projects and scouting new locations for some additional projects. If you want to hear about Aaron's adventures in Nepal you can read his blog by clicking here. Below is a video that shows just how important this work is:

a child's right and the Gonodaya school from a child's right on Vimeo.

I am really proud of Aaron and the work he is going to be doing with A Child's Right. Best of luck and Godspeed to you hermano!

More Haiti Reflections, and the Dominican Republic too. . .

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-401557

This is video from the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic (DR) from CNN. It is from the town of Jimani on the border betwee the DR and Haiti. Healing Waters has a water system in Jimani.

I spent 5 weeks in the DR last summer and was blown away by the poverty there. In all of my experiences and travel in Latin America in the past decade, including visiting and/or doing development projects in half a dozen countries, I had never seen poverty as severe as what I saw in the Dominican Republic.

Now Haitians are fleeing Haiti because they see more opportunity in the DR. This is a remarkable comparison to me. The poverty in the DR is stark and overwhelming, but compared to Haiti it is almost a paradise.

This really makes me stop and pause and pray for our brothers and sisters in Haiti and our brothers and sisters in the DR who are trying to help the people of Haiti. Amazing.

My Birthday Wish. . . Access to safe drinking water for 10 more people!

The last time you had a glass of water, where did you get that water from? Did you get it from the faucet in your home? Did you have a glass of water at a restaurant?

When you drank that water, did you stop and ask yourself if it was safe to drink? Did you think about whether or not that water was going to make you sick?

Most of us don’t ask those questions; in fact those questions do not even cross our minds. We have the privilege of living in a country that distributes safe drinking water through our taps 99% of the time. We don’t have to wonder if the water is going to make us or our families sick; we don’t even think about it.

In much of the world, that is not the case. Over one billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and billions more have “access” to buy safe drinking water at the store, but they don’t have the resources to pay for it. It is hard to buy bottled water when you live on less than $2 a day. As a result, they drink dirty contaminated water. And they give that same contaminated water to their children, not because they want to, but because they have no other options. And they live most of their lives in a constant state of sickness.

One organization working to change that is Healing Waters International. Their mission is to empower local ministry partners to bring physical, social and spiritual transformation to poor communities by providing sustainable, safe water solutions. Their vision is to see safe water provided in the name of Jesus in every poor community of the world. And the way they pursue that mission and vision is unique and exciting. I really believe in this organization. (Conflict of interest disclosure statement, I work for them too!)

So my birthday is on Sunday. The Big 3-2 !!!! I have enough "stuff" so I would rather support this cause for my birthday. Every $50 donated to Healing Waters provides another person access to safe drinking water FOR LIFE! I hope to provide 10 more people access to safe water for my birthday, so I am trying to raise $500. Every little bit helps, so please donate! (The link to donate is below)

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/birthdays/213213

I believe that access to safe drinking water should be a basic human right for every person on this planet. Healing Waters is working towards that while also empowering local partners to bring physical, social and spiritual transformation to their communities. And their model incorporates long-term sustainability, so their projects continue to keep on distributing safe water, years after they are installed. It doesn't get much better than that!

Water use put into perspective

I saw this and thought it was pretty amazing. It is a graphic that shows how much water we use in a day, not just through showers and flushing toilets, but the amount of freshwater resources it takes to create some of the food we eat too.

Click on the link and then click on the graphic within the link to get it to a size you can read it:
http://www.good.is/post/transparency-how-much-water-do-you-use/

Overwhelmed, paralyzed, what can I do?

The title of this post captures the sentiment that I have felt at times about issues of social justice, global poverty, starvation, the water crisis and other tough stuff that tugs at my heart strings.

There are so many issues out there, that we can be paralyzed into inaction because we are so overwhelmed by the amount of saddness and suffering around us.

But know that you can make a difference, even little you. In your tiny corner of the world, you can make a difference. I use the starfish parable a lot to describe this:

One morning an elderly man was walking on a beach. A high tide the night before had washed thousands of starfish up on the beach. Now that the tide was back out and the sun was coming up, the starfish were dying in the sun. He came upon a boy surrounded by thousands and thousands of starfish. As eagerly as he could, the youngster was picking them up one at a time and throwing them back into the ocean.

Puzzled, the older man looked at the young boy and asked, "Little boy, what are you doing?"

The youth responded without looking up, "I'm trying to save these starfish, sir."

The old man chuckled aloud, and queried, "Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you. What difference can you make?"

Holding a starfish in his hand, the boy turned to the man and, gently tossing the starfish into the water, said, "It will make a difference to that one!"

Find your starfish in your own little corner of the world. For me, it is safe drinking water in Latin America. For my wife, it is teaching in urban schools. For a friend of mine, it is working in soup kitchens and homeless shelters on her time off. Each one of us knows we can't fix all the world's problems, but we each work in our own corner of the world "making a difference to that one."

The video below has a cool spin on this too (and is also pretty critical of "reality TV" which is one of my pet peeves):

Last three days in Guatemala, a LOOOOONNGGG bus trip and my first day in Chiapas, Mexico!

I picked up my parents from the Guatemala City airport on Wednesday night. Their plane was late and did not arrive until about 11:45pm which means we did not make it back to our hotel in Antigua until 1am.

Thursday morning I turned my parents loose in Antigua as I drove to the Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad Guatemala office. Thursday was another full, but very fulfilling day. I arrived at the office and got caught up on e-mail, staying in touch with the Denver office of Healing Waters. Then Juan, Dani and I piled into the car and drove to Comalapa, a city of 15,000 that is about 1 hour from the office. Along the way we shared the road with a man herding his cow as you can see in the photo below.



We are installing a new water system in Comalapa this year, so I got the chance to see where the water system is being installed and learn a little bit more about the community. I am really excited about this water system because it is being installed in a Christian school that has representation from various churches in town, including Catholic and Protestant. The school is run by an interdenominational organization with a strong version for serving their community.

This is a photo of me standing in front of the school with a teacher

After visiting the school where the water system will be installed and meeting with some people from the school, Juan, Dani and I toured the local market where I got to take some great photos.

A Catholic church, a brightly painted bus and a "tuk-tuk" (three wheeled motorcycle taxi)

Three boys in the market who wanted me to take their photo

An indigenous woman selling tomatos and potatos

A beautiful indigenous woman selling flowers

On our way back to the office we stopped by a roadside stand where they sell roasted corn on the cob. You rub lime and salt on the corn and it is DELICIOUS!

The woman preparing the corn and cutting the limes

Me enjoying some roasted corn on the cob

We got back to the office in time to finalize our schedule for the next day, which included a morning meeting with a couple of my staff members, and visits with three church partners all over Guatemala city. Friday morning dawned early once again, as I had to meet with Ben, our tech and maintenance manager to help him with contracting an assistant. Then we hopped in the car and headed into Guatemala city. I met with the pastor a two church elders from a church that is really involved in their community. We met on the campus of a seminary where the pastor teaches classes.

The pastor and elders of the church, note a slight difference in height.

After that meeting, we headed to a famous Chinese restaurant in Guatemala city (I know, Chinese food it Guatemala? Right?) The food was mediocre but the meeting with the pastor went well. He had some good feedback and suggestions and really enjoyed getting to know him and hear about his church. Guatemala is a country of contrasts, and this man is the co-pastor of a church. He is well-educated and from a middle class family. His co-pastor at the church is a carpenter with a 6th grade education. It was amazing to learn how well these two men complement each other and can do such a great job leading a church.

Important Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad and church business over Guatemalan Chinese food!

My final meeting of the day was in the Santa Fe neighborhood which is literally a stones-throw away from the runway of the Guatemala City International Airport. This neighborhood is famous because every few years a pilot doesn't stick the landing at the airport, or the brakes don't work on the plane and the planes end up crashing into this neighborhood. (I guess that is not something you want to be famous for.) The pastor of the church had a great sense of humor and a huge heart for serving his community. It was very clear that he was using the Healing Waters system to reach out to his community and provide them a source of safe drinking water. . . and hope for a better future.

Another substantial height difference. Next to me is Daniela Rosales, a Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad staff member in Guatemala

We finally made it back to the office at about 5pm and celebrated the birthday of Cristobal, one of the employees at the Aguas de Unidad Guatemala office. Our Guatemalan accountant, Letty, has a one year old son that joined us for the party. After some delicious cake, I took the time to say goodbye and pray with the employees. It was a long but very fulfilling work-week.

Gregorio and Juan Orlando

Cristobal blowing out his candles

I drove back to Antigua exhausted but very content. My parents were waiting for me and we all went to dinner at Mono Loco and had their famous nachos! On Saturday morning my parents and I drove to Lake Atitlan. It is a beautiful lake in the Guatemalan highlands surrounded by two huge volcanoes. We walked through the market and I started to buy dresses for my daughter (who will be born on December 20th.) I went a little crazy and ended up getting 7 different dresses, but it was fun!

Then we took a boat ride out on the lake to a small village. We returned to Panajachel (the major city on the lake) and had a delicious lunch of Mojarra, a fish that is caught in Lake Atitlan.

My Dad and I at the Mirador overlooking Lake Atitlan and Panajachel

Dad after finishing his Mojarra. I told him to eat the eyes, he wasn't interested.

We drove back to Antigua and then met Juan Colmenares (a Guatemala Aguas de Unidad employee) and his family for our final dinner in Guatemala.

On Sunday morning we left our hotel in Antigua at 6:00am to be at the bus terminal in Guatemala city at 7am. Our bus left for Tapachula at 7:30am and arrived in Tapachula at 2:00pm. Tapachula is just across the Mexican border in southern Chiapas.

The border crossing was a little bit chaotic. The bus dropped us off on the Guatemalan side of the border where we had to wade through money changers and people offering to "help us" with the immigration process. Once we got up to the window for Guatemalan immigration, they looked at our passports and told us we had to pay 10 Quetzales each (the equivalent of $1.25.) I was suspicious of that as I didn't think there was an "exit tax" to leave the country so I asked the agent if she could produce a receipt for me. Surprise, Surprise, their machine was broken so she couldn't give me a receipt. But if I wanted to go to the bank a block away and make the payment there, they would give me a receipt. The bank had a line out the door and I decided it would be easier to just pay and get across the border. After that you physically walk across a bridge that is the Guatemala-Mexico border. On the other side the bus is waiting. You take your bags from underneath the bus and then go through Mexican immigration and customs. We put the bags back on the bus, borded and off we went.

From the border to Tapachula it is about 30 minutes and we got stopped at police/military checkpoints twice looking for drugs and illegal immigrants.

We got the bus station in Tapachula which was surprisingly clean and calm for a Latin American bus station. We had to wait for an hour and a half to get our bus to Tuxtla so I ran out and bought some sandwiches, chips and soda.

We boarded the bus to Tuxtla at 3:30pm and finally made it to Tuxtla at 9:30pm. Once again there were at least 4 military/police checkpoints looking for drugs and illegal immigrants.

We checked into our hotel and then went over to Mario's house. He is the National Director of Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad Mexico. Mario's wife, Kim, is an INCREDIBLE cook and she had made some typical dishes for us. In typical fashion, dinner lasted until midnight and we finally made it back to the hotel and crashed.

Now I am Mexico for the week and will try to post updates a little more frequently. My schedule will slow down a bit, so I hope to be sharing a bit more. Thanks for reading and LET THE CLEAN WATERS FLOW!

Saludos de Guatemala! (Greetings from Guatemala!)

This is the daughter and granddaughter of Esther, the recipient of the Habitat for Humanity House that the Wellshire group built in March. I had a chance to go back and visit the family and see their completed house. You can read more below.

I am sitting down relaxing in the lobby of my little hotel in Antigua for the first time since I arrived on Sunday night. I finally have a little free time to sit down and update my blog, so here goes!

I am spending a week in Guatemala and a week in Mexico working with the local staff and offices of Aguas de Unidad/Healing Waters International. I arrived here in Guatemala late Sunday night and will be catching a bus to Mexico this Sunday. For my seven days here in Guatemala, I have a pretty packed itinerary.

After my plane landed at 11pm on Sunday, Daniela Rosales from our Guatemala office picked me up at the airport and we made the 45 minute long drive to Antigua (this drive takes only 45 minutes when there is no traffic, more on that later.) She dropped me off at the hotel and I crashed. I woke up Monday morning at 5:15am to shower, get dressed and be ready to go at 5:45am. I had a meeting planned with a member of the Aguas de Unidad Guatemala board of directors at 7:30am in Guatemala city and because of the rush hour traffic, it takes an hour and a half to get from Antigua to Guatemala City in the mornings.

The meeting was very successful. I had the chance to thank our board member for his service to the organization, update him on what was going on with Healing Waters and he shared some great ideas and thought that he had about how to make Aguas de Unidad better in Guatemala.

After this meeting, I drove to our office (which is on the road between Guatemala City and Antigua.) I held a staff meeting with all of our Guatemala staff, got brought up to speed on the happenings of the Guatemala office, helped establish and set some priorities, and enjoyed some quality time with our amazing Guatemala Aguas de Unidad team.

After a delicious lunch, I headed to one of our water systems that is located with a church in the "La Florida" neighborhood. I sat down with the pastor of the church and talked through some operational changes that we have while getting updated on how the water system was going for his church. The opportunity to be in the field seeing the water systems and meeting with the pastors is always amazing and really recharges my batteries in the work that I do for Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad.

This pastor has been using the water system to bless his neighborhood and his church, and it was amazing to see the love in his eyes for Jesus and for his community. After the meeting at the water system in La Florida, I headed back to the office and spent an hour working with Ben, our director of maintenance for Guatemala.

We are in the process of hiring an assistant for Ben and he and I had to sit down and write the job description and employment contract. While this may sound dry and boring, it was also an opportunity to get caught up with Ben. I have talked about him before in my blog: http://blogadegregorio.blogspot.com/2009/06/day-in-life-of-healing-waters-field.html He is a great guy and it was a lot of fun to work with him, even on a project that might seem boring.

After we wrapped up at 6:30pm, we headed back to Antigua. These 10-13 hour work days can be long when I am in the field, but they are worth it. Because my plane ticket and hotel are paid for by our generous donors, I really feel like I need to be a good steward of those donations and take full advantage of my time in the field, so I tend to work very long but very fulfilling days.

When I got back to Antigua, I went out for tacos with Dani, Ben and Ben's wife Krista. We shared some great stories over some Gallo beers and tacos. All in all, it was a great day in the field!

On Tuesday morning, I had to get up at 5:15am again for a 5:45am departure to Guatemala city. I went to meet with the national denominational council for the "Verbo" churches, which is a big denomination of evangelical churches that started here in Guatemala. The denomination has over 30 churches here, and many in other countries including Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and they have even planted churches in Spain, Canada and the United States. I love this sort of "reverse missionary" work when Latin America is sending missionaries to do church planting in "developed" countries like Canada, the United States and Europe. It turns the whole missionary perspective on its head and I just love it!

The meeting with the denominational leadership for the Verbo churches went very well, far better than expected. We have 2 water systems currently at Verbo churches, and after this meeting with their national council, I hope we will consider expanding into more Verbo churches in the future.

We headed back to the office and then I took our whole ADU Guatemala staff out to lunch. After a delicious lunch, I headed to the community of Villa Verde in Ciudad Quetzal. This is where we are going to be installing one of our next water systems. I had the chance to meet with some members of the church, tour the community and see the location where the water system will be installed.

It is very exciting that despite the tough economic times, Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad is still expanding as an organization and we will be installing three new water systems in Guatemala this year. (Along with 3-4 in Mexico and 10 in the Dominican Republic.) I hope to visit one of the other new water system sites later in the week.

I returned to the office late in the afternoon and then called our headquarters in Denver to check in and update everyone there and finally made it back to my hotel at about 6:30pm, racking up another 12+ hour day but excited both for what was accomplished and for what the rest of the week held in store.

Wednesday morning (this morning) I actually got to sleep in until 6:30am, imagine that! My first meeting was an 8am breakfast meeting with a pastor, but it was in a town between Antigua and Guatemala city, so I didn't have to fight the rush-hour traffic going into Guatemala City.

The meeting with the pastor was incredible. He told me stories of some of the amazing things happening at his church, at the water system and in the community. This is one of those pastors that just knocks your socks off with his vision for serving his community and his amazing work ethic.

We departed the breakfast meeting to go to Chimaltenango, which is a town about 30 minutes from Antigua where we have two water systems. This is the town where we went with the group from Wellshire Presbyterian church for a trip in March.

We arrived about 30 minutes early, so we drove to the Habitat for Humanity house that the group from Wellshire helped to build back in March. I had the chance to see the completed house and spend a few minutes talking with the family, it was great to see the project come to completion and see the family moved into their house. I really respect organizations like Habitat for Humanity because they provide such a basic thing (dignified housing) but really work to empower the recipients of the houses and charge no interest or very low interest loans to the new homeowners, truly a "hand up" and not a "hand out."

After visiting with Esther (the new homeowner) we headed to one of the churches in Chimaltenango where we have a water system. We met with the pastor for over two hours, and got an update on the state of the water system and the church. Once again the pastor shared some great stories about what they have been able to do in their community because of the water system. It was invigorating!

After a quick lunch, we met with the other pastor at the other church in Chimaltenango that has a Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad system. I hadn't met this pastor before and it was great to sit and talk with him and hear his vision for transforming his community.

We returned to the office at about 4:30pm and I checked back in with the Denver office and got caught up on e-mails. After leaving the office at 6pm, I have been sitting in the hotel relaxing.

I am going to go grab some dinner and then drive down to Guatemala City to pick up my parents who come in on a flight tonight.

They are going to hang out here in Guatemala for the next few days while I am working and then join me on the bus trip from Guatemala to Chiapas, Mexico on Sunday. I am blessed to have them come down here to spend some time with me, enjoy all that Antigua has to offer and keep me company in the 12 hour bus ride on Sunday.

I will try to update once or twice more before I leave for Mexico on Sunday. I will also try to get some more photos in here too. Take care and LET THE CLEAN WATERS FLOW!

Another Sermonette/Message from the Wellshire Guatemala Team

On Sunday, June 7th, Wellshire Presbyterian Church celebrated the Global Missions Trip to Guatemala with Healing Waters International and Habitat for Humanity. My last post was the sermon/message/homily that I gave at the service. Below is another one from Ted Griffith. This was Ted's first foray into Global Missions, and I think he is hooked. Enjoy and THANKS TED!


My name is Ted Griffith….my wife & I moved here April a year ago. Thank you all for your warm welcome & acceptance. Do you remember when you went home (the home you grew up in) after an extended absence……… That is the feeling you give me.
We are set apart for service to one another.
Everyone should experience international & domestic mission work. Those who are not able can sponsor someone & experience through them the satisfaction of mission service.
We are likely to consider ourselves middle class or above. By American standards our assessment may be accurate, but by global standards we are incredibly rich. .
I believe in a hand up not a hand out & that is exactly what Habitat For Humanity & Healing Waters International preaches.
I like to physically see progress like cinder blocks being laid, concrete being mixed & water being purified & distributed.
But to get involved in relationships with fellow workers, Ester, school kids takes me to a different emotional level.
When we see another as God’s anointed, our relationships are profoundly affected.
That is what this mission trip did for me.

We are set apart for service to one another.
Santos & Pedro were masons employed by Habitat For Humanity making a combined income of $200 per house, to pour the foundation, lay cinder block, install the roof, & pour the concrete floor…... With help they can complete a house in 15 days (& most of the time they don’t have help). (10 hr days …. do the math …. that’s $ .67 per hour)
Santos (recently married) & Pedro (Santos’ brother in law) worked hard, had a great sense of humor & their faith in God was very genuine. They live 2 ½ hours away so they slept in the tool shed during the week & cooked meals over a wood fire.
A neighbor at the Habitat site, unannounced, fed all of us that were there. (beans, corn & tortillas prepared over a wood fire).
A family invited all 19 of us for a meal, it was prepared over a wood fire
Propane, gas, or electricity is too expensive & not readily available.
What little they have they are so willing to share.

We are set apart for service to one another
When you come back from a mission trip you have flash backs & emotional swings at odd times.
I have laughed out loud (when I think of Brian or Graham waking me up – my travel alarm has a soft tone without my hearing aids, but it was annoying to Brian & Graham in the next room, or the van struggling to get up a hill, or the flat tire on the way to the airport) & also being awestruck by the Guatemala children, youth, & adults for their zest for life, their smiles, their laughter, their music, their worship service, & their love of God.
They have so little by our standards yet they really have so much.
The Monday after we returned I was fixing an egg for breakfast…….cracked an egg into a plastic dish, put it in the microwave, pushed the right buttons……..
All I saw was food cooking over a wood fire, smoke and all…..
Tears started to flow.

We all are set apart for service to one another.

Guatemala and Global Drinking Water Crisis Message

Last Sunday my church celebrated our mission trip to Guatemala. Seven members of our mission team gave short messages/sermonettes/homilies to share our experience in Guatemala with the rest of Wellshire church. Below is the message I gave, which sort of expounded on the bible study that I led the last day our group was in Guatemala. . . enjoy!



How many of you have had the opportunity and privilege of traveling to Mexico or Guatemala?

How many of you were given the advice “Don’t drink the water?”

Many people believe that advice is just for Americans and that the locals can drink their own tap water.

The sad reality is that is simply not the case. In 90% of cities in Mexico, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, the tap water that comes out of the tap is so contaminated it would make anyone sick, no matter what your nationality. You see little bugs like salmonella, giardia, fecal coliforms, e coli and others don’t discriminate based on your nationality, anyone who comes in to contact with these little buggers gets sick.

That is a daily reality for the people that live in Guatemala and other developing countries, they can’t just go to the tap and get a glass of drinking water and they have to treat any water they are going to cook with too.


Some facts about the global drinking water crisis:


-More than 1.1 billion people in the world, 1 in 6, lack access to safe drinking water

-More than 1.5 million children under the age of 5 die from water borne illnesses each year, like the equivalent of 16 Boeing jumbo jets crashing each day, no survivors.

-Diarrhea from water borne disease is the second leading cause of mortality among children.

-Poor, urban communities of the developing world pay the highest prices in the world for water.

These are numbers. Numbers and statistics are important for us to try to understand the depth and breadth of a problem, but numbers never tell the whole story.

These numbers have faces, and we had the privilege of looking in those faces each day we were in Guatemala. Many of those faces are the photos I took on the trip in this blog post.

But our trip to Guatemala was not a story of sadness, it was a story of hope, because each one of us who went on the trip to Guatemala and each one of you who prayed for us while we were on the trip. . .

is working to change these numbers and just as important, looking in these faces and building relationships and solidarity with the people that represent these statistics.

As Christians, we are called to help others in the world who are hurting, struggling and not getting their basic needs met. We are called LOUDLY to do this throughout scripture.

In Matthew 25, Jesus states “. . . for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me. . .

Truly I tell you, just at you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

I have felt this call strongly in my life and it has led me to do development work in Latin America as the Field Operations Manager for Healing Waters International.

Each person will respond this call differently, by helping out a neighbor, by working in the soup kitchen or homeless shelter down the street, by traveling to a native American reservation and working there, or by doing global missions.

Each one of these are equally important and equally good responses to that call, but it is so important that we heed that call and like Jesus, actively work to feed the hungry, offer drink to the thirsty, comfort to the lonely, care to the sick.

We could learn statistics about all of these hurting people in our world, and statistics are important to grasp the scope of a problem, like the global problem for safe drinking water.

But we also need to remember that these numbers have faces.

We need to look in those faces and shine the light of Christ through our eyes and treat those in need with the dignity, respect and help that Christ is calling us to do.

So all of this really begs the question: What are you going to do to heed that call?

This is your call to action. In Healing Waters when talking about the global water crisis, we call it the H2OATH:

-Learn about the problem

-Do something about it

-Tell others

I encourage you to take your own oath for your own passion and calling for missional work, work outside the walls of this church, work that Jesus comes along side and does with us.

A day in the life of Healing Waters Field Staff in Guatemala

Let me begin by saying that I believe God is blessing the organization and ministry of Healing Waters International. We are blessed in many ways, from the funding of our water projects in difficult economic times to the amazing staff we have working for us who we really shouldn't be able to afford but work for us any way because they feel a call and have a heart for safe drinking water in developing countries.

On that note, I want to tell you about our water systems technician/engineer in Guatemala. We generally try to hire locals to staff our field offices, but will make exceptions depending upon the situation. Well, the situation in Guatemala called for an exception, and his name is Ben Lengacher. He has a masters degree in water engineering but has a heart for Guatemala and community service. So for at least the next year, we have a highly over-qualified, very lovable gringo water tech/engineer in Guatemala.

Ben wrote a great blog post earlier this week that I wanted to share with you:

Friday, June 5, 2009

A day in the life
Guest Blogger: Ben
So what exactly am I doing for work in Guatemala, some of you may be asking? Actually, some=all since I hardly knew before I left Colorado two months ago, and am not known for keeping in touch. For starters, I work for a Denver-based non-profit called Healing Waters International (HWI), or Aguas de Unidad here in Guatemala. The just of HWI is simple – people need clean, safe drinking water here and in Mexico and the Dominican Republic where other HWI projects are. To provide safe drinking water, HWI partners with a local church and with funds donated by sponsors in the US, installs a water purification system. The system purifies either tap water, water from a well, or from a “pipa” (water delivery truck), and then sells the water in 5 gallon jugs for 5 quetzales here in Guatemala (equivalent to $0.63). This allows people in communities where HWI systems are installed to buy water at a third the price than what they pay in a local store. Granted, this may not seem to be a big deal to those of us who pay $1-2 for a 1 liter bottle of Aquafina or pay $30 per month for 10,000 gallons of tap water, but economics are different here: the tap water is not necessarily safe to drink, if reliable, and I remember reading somewhere that the average household annual salary is $3,500 (or roughly one tenth of ours). There are many other factors that make this a “win-win” in the words of a guy I met this week from the US – the church employs an encargado to fill the 5 gallon jugs and the church is able to use the money from the project for community outreach. For example, they may donate 5 gallon jugs to a local school that does not have purified water. For more info, check out the HWI website: http://www.healingwatersintl.org/

Okay, so that doesn’t explain what I do. My job is coordinating maintenance on the water purification equipment, scheduling water quality analysis, and organizing the delivery of what we call consumables, which are the jugs, seals, and chemicals used in the system. This is a tall task for a guy who speaks only 4th grade Spanish, so most of my time thus far has been learning from Juan Colmenares who has been working at HWI here in Guatemala since it's inception in 2004. Juan also doubles as my Spanish tutor and has the patience of a saint since I have mis-pronounced the word “cotización” five times this week alone (cotización = a quotation from a distributor to provide cartridge filters, for example).

So here is a run down of my week:

Monday: went to breakfast with the national director, Mario, to meet some people from Willow Creek church in Chicago who want to help sponsor new systems in Guatemala, Que Onda! (= how cool, new vocab for me); then drove to Chimaltenango with Cristóbal to visit system with pump problem, checked pump, plan to return tomorrow with parts; tried salad for lunch at Pollo Campero (=KFC but much fresher); return to office for bit, then home to Antigua where we ate pizza with Kim (Mario’s wife) and two daughters Megan and Lilian;

Tuesday: left for Guate (Guetemala City) at 5:30am so I could arrive at 8am for our car’s inspection at Insurance office, traffic was so slow I bought the Pensa Libre (newspaper) and skimmed front section and sports before traffic moved; Nuggets are in playoffs against LA Lakers, game 1 tonight at 7pm, Lakers favored go figure; arrived at insurance office 30 minutes early after only one major wrong turn; chatted with local guard for office who had standard-issue shotgun (every building has a guard here); went to meeting with insurance agent, who told me they need two hours to install LoJack detector, part of requirement to insure Dewey; called Juan who met me to go to pump parts place (PPP) meanwhile, waited for Juan and ate a tamale and rice milk from woman on street corner; went to PPP but found out they didn’t carry parts for pump in Chimaltenango (Chimalt); went to correct PPP where Mariano told me they don’t sell a replacement part ‘kit’, only individual parts but they can diagnose problem and fix in office; Juan and I went to Landivar where the HWI system has problems with taste in purified water, we tasted several samples in process and agreed we need to replace cartridge filters and change carbon filter media; Juan dropped me off at Insurance place, picked up Dewey after another hour of paperwork and photos for record; back to office without getting lost (first for me); back to Antigua for dinner with Mario+family and Krista;

Wednesday: drove different way to Chimalt and enjoying mountain scenery (reminds me of Colorado), where Cristobal and I removed the pump and talked with the church encargado and director about shutting down the system for the day – no spare pump available; then went solo to Petapa where there is an HWI system with leaks in some piping, replaced some PVC piping and talked with Pedro the encargado (water system employee), found out that Pedro’s dad lives in Philadelphia but he has yet to visit because he lacks passport, papers, etc.; returned to office and then back to Antigua to hang with Krista and watch Nuggets victory!

Thursday: returned to Chimalt to replace the pump we had repaired at the PPP, turns out I need to re-wire pump to controller which I don´t have diagram for; went to another system with the encargado, Felipe, to review the existing wiring there for the same pump; talked with the encargado there, Henry, who had a broken arm – he was in a motorcycle accident that Felipe chided him was because he was talking on the phone with his girlfriend; armed with diagram for pump wiring, return to Chimalt and wire pump with controller with help of Felipe while I find out that he plays guitar in local church band and loves American rock (Nirvana, Metallica, you name it); Felipe and I decide to trade music the next time I’m there since he has a collection of Guatemalan rock music; went back to office for afternoon and talked with Juan about scheduling water analyses at all the systems.

Friday: Wow, it has been a pretty busy week already but Juan, Cristobal and I return to Petapa to make sure we have all repairs made to system since the Ministry of Health may re-visit the system; check out pipe repairs and operation of the system – I still need to diagnose chlorine pump problem but not today; drive new way back to Antigua on way home and stop with Cristobal and Juan to eat churros (fried sweet bread, not to be confused with chorros = valves in water system); back to Antigua to eat dinner with Krista at Sabe Rico (=best food I’ve had in Antigua) and watch Nuggets lose to Lakers, go figure.

You can read more about Ben's experience on his blog:
http://fromcolfaxtoxela.blogspot.com/

Amazing Photographer + Big Heart = Powerful Photographs and a Good Friend

Photo by Bryce Boyer from the D.R.
To see more of his DR photos, go to:

http://dominicanrepublic2008.blogspot.com/

When I was in the Dominican Republic for five weeks last summer doing my work with Healing Waters International, I had the privilege of co-leading a group of Healing Waters and Compassion International friends during my last week there. The group came down to help inaugurate a Healing Waters system and also visit the children that they sponsor through Compassion international. There is an amazing synergy between our organizations and this trip was a great manifestation of that synergy. (that was an academic sounding sentence, sorry about that, there is still a lot of academia left in me.)

Anyhow, Compassion International sent down a photographer with this group of people named Bryce Boyer. In the week that we spent together, it became very clear that Bryce is a talented photographer and has a HUGE heart for the work that Healing Waters and Compassion do. I really cannot say enough good things about him, and consider him a good friend after spending a week in the DR with him and seeing the way he interacts with people, especially kids. I have used a few of his photos in my blog posts.

I wanted to share a couple of differnent links with you about Bryce. First is his website as a professional photographer (shameless plug.) He does amazing work and has shot for some REALLY high end magazines and newspapers. http://www.bryceboyer.com/

The other link I want to share is the blog he put together after our trip to the DR. His posts provided some amazing insight to the issues of poverty and safe drinking water in the developing world, and I was so impressed with his perspective and his amazing photos. http://dominicanrepublic2008.blogspot.com/ I have cut and paste his most profound post below, but please jump over to his blog that he wrote to see some AMAZING photos.

If you saw a hit and run, would you tell anybody by: Bryce Boyer
Thursday, September 11, 2008

If you saw a hit and run, would you tell anybody?
Visiting the ghettos in a third world country can feel like a punch in the stomach. Like witnessing a terrible car wreck... an accident in which no one want to take responsibility for the victims who are left writhing in pain.

How can I witness such a need for the basic necessities of life (like healthy water) and not tell someone about it. I just got back from a trip to the Dominican Republic taking photos for two fantastic non-profits that are doing something to help: Compassion International & Healing Waters. It feels good to have done something to contribute to their efforts.

My parents have sponsored children through Compassion International for over 25
years. We always had pictures on our refrigerator to remind us of them. This was
the second international trip I've made taking marketing pictures for Compassion
Int. (You can see my Africa trip blog here).

Compassion's focus is helping the poorest of the poor children of the world. Thru community churches, they mobilize thousands of volunteers and staff to help over 1 million children around the world get food, medical attention, education, and encouragement. In America, sponsors help make this possible with $35/month and letters to their sponsored children.

Compassion realizes they can not help the poorest of the poor children of the world if the children are sick all the time because they don't have access to clean water. Healing Waters is a non-profit NGO (non-government-organization) that has a passion for installing clean drinking water systems in some of the poorest areas of the
world. I don't want to bore you... check out their site here if you are interested in what they do.

I hope my pictures will help spur someone into action. Volunteer, here or abroad. Donate. Go on a trip. Sponsor a child. Do something.
Posted by Bryce Boyer Photography at 9:02 PM 0 comments

Amazing Blog Post in support of Healing Waters

A child at a Compassion International site

in the Dominican Republic with a cup of

clean drinking water from the

Healing Waters system

Compassion International, the child sponsorship organization that is a partner with Healing Waters, posted an amazing story on their blog today and I want to share it with you. It not only deals with the impact that the safe drinking water has had from the Healing Waters project, it also talks about the investments in the community that the church has been able to make with the revenue generated by the project.

I have cut and pasted some excerpts below. The link to the whole story can be found here:
http://blog.compassion.com/inside-a-healing-waters-international-project/

Inside a Healing Waters International Project
Written by: Adones Martinez

Since the Healing Waters International water project opened at the Comunidad Cristiana El Santuario Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Church in 2006, church members have had more opportunities to decide on matters that can benefit the ministry and the community of Barrio Mexico in southern coastal town of San Pedro de Macorís in Dominican Republic.

The church’s leadership calls for periodic members’ meetings where all ministry managers update the assembly on their ministry. Since all the ministries overlap in some way, these reports help the church make the best decisions.

The ministries include Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program, the Healing Waters International water project, a school and a community holistic vocational center.

These church meetings have become a forum at which the community, represented by the believers, can discuss the best ways to manage resources.

Milqueya is a mother of eight and grandma of seven. She and her husband still live with 11 children and grandchildren at home. Milqueya and her large family enjoy the benefits of the decisions she’s been helping her church make as a voting member. One important decision was the incorporation of the Healing Waters International water project.

In the past, even the least harmful water source wasn’t safe enough for Milqueya. She bought water from the trucks that drove past her home.

Miqueya paid only RD$20 for a 5-gallon water bottle, avoiding the RD$35 price at local stores. But the truck-bought water was making her and her family sick.

“The water caused us stomach diseases. But after we began to drink the water
from the church, we are always healthy and we don’t have any stomach problems.”

After the Healing Waters International project began, the community’s health has improved.

“Since we’ve been running the project, there’s not been any health problems
reported,” says Ana Ivelisse, manager of the Healing Waters International
project. “The National Ministry of Health comes and tests our water to certify
it.”

Not only is the water from the church the purest, it is also the most economic.

For RD$10, half of what she paid for the truck-bought water that made her family sick, Milqueya can take her 5-gallon water bottle home, saving her family’s limited resources for other living expenses.

Proceeds from the water project go toward human and social development to serve and benefit the community through education, health and nutrition.

In the field of education, the Healing Waters International project provides 20 children from Barrio Mexico with a scholarship so they can study at the church’s school.

The project also pays for a watchman who protects the property and equipment of the Compassion-assisted child development center, and a housekeeper who cleans the center’s building.

The proceeds also support the church’s vocational school, which trains locals in a variety of jobs, including computers.

Motorcycles, carts and trolleys arrive each day, taking home 41,000 to 45,000 gallons of purified water each month. The church donates another 600 gallons to the community.


The highest water consumption in the year comes during the summer months when the temperature reaches around 34 degrees Celsius, and the children are home for school break.

The 600 gallons of water that the church donates to the community benefits many groups, including the Compassion-assisted children at Cedina Student Center, the students in the church’s school, the medical staff and patients at a local clinic, and some neighbors in times of special need.

When the community holds a sports event, the church is always willing to support it. Pastor Ventura Taylor says,

“We serve the water in small bottles and we donate it to them as a way of our
church being committed with that activity, which has to do with the social and
cultural development of the community.”

A label is put on the bottles specifying that it is purified water from Comunidad Cristiana El Santuario Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Church and Healing Waters International.

Swine Flu and Safe Drinking Water -- Update # 2 -- I actually broke a news story on my blog!

This photo that I took during my last trip to Latin America

shows a child filling a bag with water from a stream

I wanted to post another quick update on the Swine Flu (or as we are supposed to call it now "Influenza A H1N1") and the role of safe drinking water.

Basically, any flu hits you a lot harder if you have a compromised or weakened immune system. The sad reality is that many people in developing countries live their entire lives with weakened immune systems because of poor nutrition and lack of access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation and hygiene. So an epidemic like this is just magnified and multiplied.

I was reading commentary about this on CNN.com that verified this:

Up to now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, has gone only so far as to advise people to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico, which seems to be ground zero in the imminent pandemic.

It's there that at least 2,500 people may have been infected. Mexican authorities also suspect that 159 deaths have resulted from the infection, although only a small number of cases -- less than a dozen -- have been confirmed. And in most of those cases, it wasn't the flu that was fatal but some another illness that took advantage of a weakened immune system caused by the H1N1 flu.

By not having access to safe drinking water, good nutrition and basic health, sanitation and hygiene, what would be a "typical" flu outbreak in the United States has a much more profound and far reaching impact in a developing country like Mexico.

NPR picked up a story about this just yesterday. I couldn't believe it, I was driving to work at Healing Waters International on Thursday listening to the radio. I had made my blog post on Monday talking about the link between safe drinking water and the flu outbreak in Mexico, and sure enough, NPR did a story on it. I will be honest with you, I felt kind of vindicated when I heard the story. (That tall, goofy blond guy that works for the water org was on the cutting edge of news and actually "broke" a story before the mainstream media covered it. . . cool!) You can click anywhere on the preview of the story below to link to the NPR website and listen to the 4 minute clip.

Global Health
Sanitation Problems Thwart Mexico's Flu Battle
by Jason Beaubien

Morning Edition, April 30, 2009 · Mexico's President Felipe Calderon on Wednesday night encouraged citizens to stay in their homes. Mexico City remains the epicenter of the swine flu outbreak. The lack of water has made sanitation a challenge in many working-class neighborhoods.

Feel free to e-mail me, Greg Allen-Pickett, with any questions, comments or feedback. Thanks for reading and LET THE CLEAN WATERS FLOW!

Swine Flu and Safe Drinking Water

“We shall not finally defeat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, or any of the other infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water"
-Kofi Annan, Former UN Secretary General

Let me begin by saying that there is no direct correlation between Swine Flu and safe drinking water. Swine flu is trasmitted just like other flus, from coming in to contact with sick people, coughing, sneezing, etc.

However there is a correlation regarding safe drinking water and your ability to recover from a disease like swine flu, and other diseases like those that Kofi Annan talks about in the quote above.

Think about what it would be like trying to recover from the flu if you didn’t have a source of safe drinking water. Flu symptoms dehydrate you (sweating from the fever, vomiting, and diarrhea.) If you are trying to rehydrate with contaminated water, the flu symptoms and associated problems are exacerbated.

Healing Waters International works in Mexico. We work to provide access to safe drinking water to the poorest of the poor, those who are most impacted by diseases like the flu and water-borne diseases.

To learn more about the work of Healing Waters International, you can visit our website at http://www.healingwatersintl.org

If you want to donate to us, you can click on the button below:
 

Short Healing Waters International video - Powerful Message

I have used this quote in a previous posting, and found that someone had incorporated it into a cool video for Healing Waters:

"Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words." -St. Francis of Assisi

This really exemplifies the work that Healing Waters does. We set up most of our water projects in churches in developing countries. We then empower the church to run the water project. They use the tool of safe drinking water to affect physical, social and spiritual transformation in their communities, without saying a word. That is the most powerful way for the church to impact lives, by providing a basic need to the people. Check out the video:

One more video. . . a little racy but good message about water

This is the last video in the series about the global drinking water crisis. . . for now. If I stumble across some more I will post them too. Enjoy!

Another great water video - Brought to you by Compassion International

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Compassion International. It is one of the "child sponsorship" organizations. For $32 per month, you can help provide a child education, health, personal development and spiritual growth.

As an organization, Compassion focuses on the "spiritual growth" piece of their mission directly, and they do it well. They outsource the education and health pieces to organizations that can help them with those parts of their mission. That is where the relationship between Compassion International and Healing Waters International comes in.

One of the key aspects of providing health care and education to children is a source of safe drinking water. Without safe drinking water, kids become sick (health) and miss school due to their illness (education.) Compassion partners with Healing Waters to install water purification systems in the Compassion Childhood Development centers. 18 of our 68 systems are installed in Compassion centers, providing a free source of safe drinking water to the kids while they are at the center and a source of safe drinking water to their families while the kids are at home!

Healing Waters loves its partnership with Compassion International, and we hope to continue to grow and build that partnership over time. In fact, the next water system that we install in Mexico will be at a Compassion center and will actually serve four additional Compassion centers in the area through a system of safe drinking water deposits. Really cool stuff!

Compassion put together the video below to illustrate the drinking water problem. . . enjoy!

Another fun water related video - THE STINK GOES ON!

I have started collecting these videos about the global water crisis and its impact, so I am going to keep sharing them with you!

Another fun video about Safe Drinking Water!

Anyone remember the "Slip 'n Slide" and the "Crocodile Mile" lawn toys? We had a lot of fun with these when I was growing up on the few summer days in Flagstaff when the temperature would go higher than 80 degrees!

The video below uses the old "Crocodile Mile" commercial to illustrate an important issue about safe drinking water and the 1.1 BILLION people that lack access to safe drinking water in the world.

"Hey mate, what do you do when you see a crocodile. . . you run, you slide, you hit the bump and take a dive BUT WATCH OUT FOR THOSE CROCS!" Watch out for unsafe drinking water too!

Fun and Informative Videos about the global drinking water crisis

I am going to post some videos over the next few days/weeks that deal with the global drinking water crisis. (I apologize to those of you who are viewing the blog over a dial-up internet connection.)

There are a lot of phenomenal organizations out there doing work with safe drinking water in developing countries, including Healing Waters International, the organization that I work for. So I am going to start the video collection with a Healing Waters video.

This was a fun promotional video we put together a few years back for a conference we were attending. We built an outhouse and put a video screen in the toilet. So imagine yourself opening the door to an outhouse and peering down in to the toilet and seeing this video playing back at you. Enjoy!



The text/script for the video is below. You can watch the video a few times to get the message, or just check out the text below:
Something you probably didn’t know:

If a community has access to tap water it is considered to have an improved water supply, making these communities overlooked for aid because they already have an “improved” water supply; but the water is all too often contaminated.

According to UNICEF and the World Health Organization, Over 3 million people (mostly children) die each year from water related illness.

Bottled water is too expensive for the poorest people so they drink bad water.

Healing Waters doesn’t just provide a source of water, we make it clean.

We work with churches to help them serve their communities to make water affordable for everyone.

So now that you know, what can you do?

Take the H2Oath:
Learn about the Issue
Do something to help
Tell others about it