American kids (as I consider myself to have been 4 years ago when I traveled to India) think that they "get" it and understand that they're privileged. After visiting India I realized that I didn't have a clue. Did you know that in parts of rural India cow waste is gathered and pressed (by hand) to dry on walls to use as cooking fuel?
This dried fuel is burned on small cooking fires like this one.
To make chai many local people boil water in this way. Where does that water come from? It it often gathered at public pumping stations and carried, sometimes extremely long distances, to the homes. I was invited as a guest into strangers' homes for chai prepared on fires like these. Although they purchased bottled water for me knowing that the local water would likely make an American like me sick. When I was there I gave away my backpack, some flip flops, clothing, and granola bars...but I was given such a more important gift in return. True kindness and generosity without expectation and the profound meaning of gratitude and the ability to truly feel it.
So today I urge you to give thanks by not taking what you have for granted. From your comfortable home all that you have to do is click the give water button on the top right corner of my blog to donate a day's worth of clean water. An email address is required to verify individual clicks, but P&G emails are opt-in! Meaning, unless you click "yes" to receive emails from them -- you won't receive anything other than one email to verify your unique email address and donate water. NO further emails! Couldn't you spare 60 seconds?
Learn more about the clean water bloivation here. P&G is providing a day of clean drinking water (2L) to a person in a developing country through P&G's Children's Safe Drinking Water Program (www.csdw.org) for every click on the "Click to Donate Water" button and click on the "share" buttons in the GIVE HEALTH widget. --- look up at the TOP RIGHT of my blog for my Give Health Widget.
