This has no direct correlation with any particular day during the trip, but I would like to note that Crystal and I were living under slightly different circumstances from the rest of the team. As far as living situations are concerned, our host family was one of the most blessed in La Comunida Florida. Over the years, and thanks to the hard work of Hermana Delfina and the rest of her family, their general store and butcher counter had provided them with enough income to build a second story onto their house. There are three small bedrooms - one for the girls, one for Ruth and Denis, and one for Hermana Delfina. They have a car, Internet access, cable television, running water, and a washer and dryer for their clothes, all standard amenities in the typical American home. They even had the luxury of the most comfortable white leather sofa that I ever had the fortune to sit upon.
However, one shouldn't be fooled by the surface values of creature comforts. Every gift had its vices to which most of us back in the States would never give a second thought. Take the running water, for instance. Santiago has a pipe works system that reaches just about every part of the city. But access to running water is not the only issue.
More importantly, is the water clean?
Not in every neighborhood. For our water to be drinkable, it had to be boiled first. If we drank anything that wasn't bottled, it was usually scalding hot tea, powdered milk or instant coffee. The safest bet, however, was simply to drink soda or bottled mineral water - safer, but far more
expensive than drinking water from the tap.
The water problem reared its ugly head once more in the communal bathroom. The showers? Infrequent. Their water heater had broken before we arrived. In late May the Southern Hemisphere is transitioning from late Autumn to early Winter, and Hermana Delfina already worried enough about our core tempuratures without adding wet hair from cold showers. I think I kept bathing to about once a week while I was there... but don't judge. It's not so bad, once you get used to it. There are bigger problems in the world than lack of hygiene.
I choose to focus so much on the lack of clean and hot running water because we so often take it for granted. I'm a poor college student. I mean, POOR. I think I have twenty-something dollars left in my bank account to last me the rest of the month. And yet I am so blessed! I drink water from the tap all the time because I'm rarely able to afford bottled water, soda, energy drinks or Starbucks. What a luxury! Every morning I can get out of my soft queen-sized bed in my own bedroom, take a hot shower before I go to work in one of the TWO bathrooms in the super-spacious, carpeted (no, the house I lived in in Santiago didn't have carpet) house that I share with only two other people.
But how much more would I think about that glass of water I had this morning if I had to boil it before I driank it? How about if I lived like so many more people in the world who don't have regular access to water, period? On the surface their lives may look so similar, and yet they deal with so many more hidden dangers that many of us will never have to face.
Want to help others get clean water just like you? Visit http://www.bloodwatermission.com/
However, one shouldn't be fooled by the surface values of creature comforts. Every gift had its vices to which most of us back in the States would never give a second thought. Take the running water, for instance. Santiago has a pipe works system that reaches just about every part of the city. But access to running water is not the only issue.
More importantly, is the water clean?
Not in every neighborhood. For our water to be drinkable, it had to be boiled first. If we drank anything that wasn't bottled, it was usually scalding hot tea, powdered milk or instant coffee. The safest bet, however, was simply to drink soda or bottled mineral water - safer, but far more
expensive than drinking water from the tap.The water problem reared its ugly head once more in the communal bathroom. The showers? Infrequent. Their water heater had broken before we arrived. In late May the Southern Hemisphere is transitioning from late Autumn to early Winter, and Hermana Delfina already worried enough about our core tempuratures without adding wet hair from cold showers. I think I kept bathing to about once a week while I was there... but don't judge. It's not so bad, once you get used to it. There are bigger problems in the world than lack of hygiene.
I choose to focus so much on the lack of clean and hot running water because we so often take it for granted. I'm a poor college student. I mean, POOR. I think I have twenty-something dollars left in my bank account to last me the rest of the month. And yet I am so blessed! I drink water from the tap all the time because I'm rarely able to afford bottled water, soda, energy drinks or Starbucks. What a luxury! Every morning I can get out of my soft queen-sized bed in my own bedroom, take a hot shower before I go to work in one of the TWO bathrooms in the super-spacious, carpeted (no, the house I lived in in Santiago didn't have carpet) house that I share with only two other people.
But how much more would I think about that glass of water I had this morning if I had to boil it before I driank it? How about if I lived like so many more people in the world who don't have regular access to water, period? On the surface their lives may look so similar, and yet they deal with so many more hidden dangers that many of us will never have to face.
Want to help others get clean water just like you? Visit http://www.bloodwatermission.com/
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