Water

Yesterday we had a bit of an adventure. We (Jess and I) met Kate at one of the schools we will be working at, and observed some classes. They were great and not the adventure. The adventure was coming home. It takes about an hour+ in the car to drive between this school and Kigali, but because buses are buses it's about a 3-4 hour commute. This was complicated by the fact that the school is at a part way stop, so the bus only has to stop when they have space to fill.

We ended up being picked up by a parent who had just enrolled his child. The man was very nice, but interesting from a political point. He works in the Supreme Court. But he's another story.

The point of this was that I noticed many people carrying yellow plastic jugs. Very large jugs. Like 5 year old children appeared to be carrying something bigger than themselves. I kept wondering to myself what they were for. Deciding it was most likely water, since we too take our giant bottles to be refilled.

Near town is when I realized my mistake. Yes the bottles the children and women and men were carrying was for water. But it was closer to the water containers I had seen at the Doctors Without Borders "Refuge Camp in the City" - 5 gallons of water for a family, or something like that. And they weren't taking them to a store to be refilled, but to the drainage ditch/stream on the side of the road.

Poverty doesn't always strike you as poverty. Until you realize that you are so spoiled, here I am, only drinking filtered and bottled water. And there are my neighbors, drinking whatever water they can find.

Clean Water. It really does change the world.