I, (Rick), had the honor of attending a special ceremony in a local neighborhood where one of Bill Allen's colleagues, Rich Wagner, built and donated two massive water tanks with a solar-powered purification system (with help from "Water for the World": http://www.purewaterfortheworld.org/). This was a huge deal. Prior to this, the local residents had to cue up around 4pm every day for local water spigots to turn on for only two hours at a time with a supply of very dirty water. It was bad enough that they only had two hours of each day to get water, which is extremely heavy to carry; it was made even worse by the fact that the water was the source of so much illness and suffering in this village. This is true throughout much of rural Peru. All this to say that it was special to witness and be part of this ceremony.
At the end of the ceremony, a slightly awkward situation arose for me. Bill Allen pulled me aside and whispered, "You probably don't want to eat the lettuce." As it turns out, the local residents were so grateful for the new water system that they prepared a special meal for us with local produce. In these areas, any produce not thoroughly cooked or washed with clean water (which again, is hard to obtain here) is often a recipe for mild to serious gastrointestinal problems. But perhaps even worse, on a social level, is to refuse the food. So, hence, a diplomatic dilemma. It is amazing how quickly one can deploy "food hiding skills" from an early age. I did my best...
I, (Rick), had the honor of attending a special ceremony in a local neighborhood where one of Bill Allen's colleagues, Rich Wagner, built and donated two massive water tanks with a solar-powered purification system (with help from "Water for the World": http://www.purewaterfortheworld.org/). This was a huge deal. Prior to this, the local residents had to cue up around 4pm every day for local water spigots to turn on for only two hours at a time with a supply of very dirty water. It was bad enough that they only had two hours of each day to get water, which is extremely heavy to carry; it was made even worse by the fact that the water was the source of so much illness and suffering in this village. This is true throughout much of rural Peru. All this to say that it was special to witness and be part of this ceremony.
At the end of the ceremony, a slightly awkward situation arose for me. Bill Allen pulled me aside and whispered, "You probably don't want to eat the lettuce." As it turns out, the local residents were so grateful for the new water system that they prepared a special meal for us with local produce. In these areas, any produce not thoroughly cooked or washed with clean water (which again, is hard to obtain here) is often a recipe for mild to serious gastrointestinal problems. But perhaps even worse, on a social level, is to refuse the food. So, hence, a diplomatic dilemma. It is amazing how quickly one can deploy "food hiding skills" from an early age. I did my best...
