Pure Water Pg 3
At the first site, Gautier (a rural community inland from Boca Chica), we found that the St. Thomas Church
had made a good start with last year's program to distribute home water purification systems. It was
encouraging to see that many people in the community are very satisfied with the performance of these
home systems and are happy to have their families' health in their own hands. Last year, when I asked the
moms if they sent their children to school with a bottle of safe water, not one answered "yes". This year
the answer to that question was sometimes "yes". Perhaps the answer changed because of my hy-
giene lessons, but perhaps the answer changed because now they could actually purify water in their
homes and had safe water to put in a bottle. Unfortunately, although kids were sent to school with safe
water, the safe water mostly came home with them at the end of the day. Peer pressure seems to say
that drinking from your water bottle is "un-cool". That perception must change, so I have made a note to
try to establish a "Safe Water Day" in the local schools when, every year, students are taught about the
importance of safe water and how trendy it is to walk around sipping from a bottle of pure water.
*Robin saves lives routinely at her job as recovery room nurse. She is greedy and has organized the
medical mission to the Dominican Republic for 10 years because she wants to save even more lives.
I was very impressed with the committee that was set up at the St. Thomas Church to distribute the
home water purifier systems. There were four people on the committee, and they were not only capable
of instructing people in the use of the purifiers, but they were enthusiastic advocates of home water
purification. These folks will ensure that the home water purification program will continue to grow in the
future. Like last year at Gautier, any of the people who were treated for waterborne illnesses were sent
to me to be instructed about hygiene and to be informed about the availability of the home water
purifiers. Although all the folks who attend the St. Thomas Church know about the home water purifiers,
the clinic attracts people who are not church members, and many of these folks do not yet know about
the home water purifier distribution program. My presence at the clinic was, thus, an excellent way to
promote home water purification beyond the church membership and beyond the local community. Many
home water purifiers were distributed during the clinic. It was very nice to be able to distribute the extra
buckets that were collected during the Lake Placid community bucket drive of March 13, 2008. Since, in
Gautier, "running water" means that you do the running with a bucket, these extra buckets are
necessary to transport water from the community spigot to the home. We had a limited-time-only offer of
an extra bucket with every home water purifier system that we distributed, and the folks who got their
systems during the three days that we had the offer really appreciated the extra bucket. Isn't it nice to
see plastic buckets that might end up in our garbage be utilized so appreciatively? (see next page)