Water

A few days ago, frustrated by the fact that our refrigerator water dispenser is frozen up again, I pulled out a Brita water filter pitcher. I had bought it over a year ago to use at work, but we had put in a water cooler so it sat in our pantry all this time, unopened.

I put it all together and filled it up with a gallon of tap water and set it aside to filter. The instructions (yes, I actually read them!) recommended pouring out the first two batches for the new filter. And after cleaning up some more of the kitchen, the first batch was done.

I was almost done pouring the entire gallon of water down the drain when I was overcome by what felt like an enormous waste. Normally I wouldn't think twice about it... I'm always guilty of leaving the water on too long when clearing and rinsing dishes. I take long showers in the morning. I've been known to leave the water running while brushing my teeth. But this seemed different.

You see, I had spent a little bit of time earlier that day on the CDC Website reading about diseases spread by lack of clean water (among other things). Specifically, about Haiti where earlier this year a massive earthquake has disrupted what was already an extremely poor country that's right in our backyard.

Now I read a lot of blogs and website articles on a daily basis and the CDC website isn't in my Google Reader list! I was there because in just 20 days, I'm going to get on a plane with my co-worker Sheri Lynch and fly to Port-au-Prince. Through a unique partnership with an incredible organization called World Vision, we're going to capture the story of how sponsorship changes the lives of children in Haiti and in other countries around the world. When we come back, Bob & Sheri will do a radio campaign to get their listeners to sponsor children and support the work of World Vision.

For the past several years, my participation in this project was simply to edit video and build web pages to support the campaign. I'm very excited to get to experience it first-hand.

I have to admit, it's a little nerve racking traveling to a place that our State Department pretty much recommends staying away from. And today I got vaccines for diseases the phone rep at my health insurance company had never heard of. In spite of all that, I am so looking forward to the experience.

I'm hoping to keep up with this blog leading up to and through the trip, and maybe even beyond... we'll see how it goes.

And in case you're wondering about that second batch of water in the Brita pitcher? I set it aside in another container and used it to water the Christmas tree last night!