Two Roads in a Wood

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Robert Frost penned a poem in 1920 about a fork in the road and taking the path less traveled.  Sometimes we choose the path we journey in life for ourselves.  We deliberate and weigh the options before us, straining our sight to look down as far as we can, making the wisest choice.  But sometimes we don’t choose the path. Sometimes we are re-routed and the road is chosen for us.  Detours.  Road in repair.  We trust and follow the orange signs, adjust our maps and continue on.

In June, we started down a dirt road to a village in Malawi named Kanyamula.  We met with the townspeople, listened to their stories and promised to come back – with our LIFEPUMP™ and clean, safe water.  But we were detoured.  We will continue to work with the Malawian government to get back to Kanyamula.  The people there are important to us, their story and their need for water touched us, and we want to keep our word to them.  In the mean time, we continue on.  There are still so many without clean water.

 

If we had gotten back to Kanyamula this month, Malawians in  Zolomondo would not be celebrating right now. There has never been a pump in their town.  The people there collect their water from open wells which dry up during this season.  Instead of searching for another water source, the villagers in Zolomondo have a source – their very own LifePump™.

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“Once water was flowing where it never had before, the people were very excited and everyone wanted to pump water. It was an awesome sight, needless to say. As the large buckets were being filled, people would place small buckets and bowls under the pump just to taste the water. They would drink from the bowl and then pass it around. One of the older men in the village asked if we have villages in America, and do we use these pumps there. It was difficult to explain that we have piped, safe water almost everywhere, or electric pumps in wells. We take so much for granted.”

(THOM HAUBERT, VOLUNTEER)

As our nation heads into a season of Thanksgiving, we are giving thanks for a detour and a road we did not choose – all that lead us to a town that now has safe water to drink.  And, as always, we are giving thanks for you.  This is important and exciting work, but we could not design and plan and drill and travel and offer our help without you.

Let’s not stop now.  There are still so many without clean water.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
ROBERT FROST

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