WaterStories

On Shower Curtains

// June 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Travel Planning

It was an offhand line in an otherwise lovely email: “Bring a shawl or a sari as a shower curtain for bathing outdoors.”

I’m sorry, what?

It’s not that bathing outdoors is a problem. It’s not that I’m skittish about that. I’ve bathed outdoors before…well, no, I haven’t, actually. But I’m not AFRAID of THAT. It’s just that if a shower curtain sari is something I need to BRING, it means it wasn’t there in the first place. Which means I could have potentially been splashing around butt-naked in public.

See, these are the moments when The Fear gets in. Those moments when you realize you can’t take ANYTHING for granted.

Here, a bathroom includes a toilet, sink and shower/bath. Anywhere else in the world, this is not necessarily the case. There may not even be a room for bathing whatsoever. It might be BYOSC (Bring Your Own Shower Curtain) to the freaking village pump for all I know!

Preparing for this trip has been an exercise in examining my own assumptions.

Here, I can drink the water that comes out of a tap. Here, it’s entirely appropriate for women to wear tank tops and shorts (and if the teenagers at the mall are any indication, pants of any kind are now optional). Here, I can go out at night. I can go running by myself. The longest line I ever have to stand in is maybe ten minutes. If I want something, I go get it. If a mosquito bites me, it itches but it won’t give me fever, chills and explosive diarrhea.

In about ten minutes, I’m going camping. It’s an intentional little exercise, part to field-test some of my equipment, part to remove the flushable-toilet-coloured-glasses I appear to be wearing.

Indian Visas, Part FOUR

// June 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Travel Planning

THIS JUST IN FROM CATE:

Just when I thought everything was going smoothly my business visa is denied at the Indian Consulate. I thought I was really on top of things by waiting until Melanie had sent hers in to have it sent back because she needed more info. She sent the second lot in and hey-presto-VISA! Great, I simply toodle off to the Vancouver Indian High Commission, give them my life and it will be that simple only quicker because I can pick mine up the next day! Then I get the expected phone call but only to let me know that I have been….denied! The guy on the other end did not know why, only that it might take months!!!! He suggested I forget about the business visa, and come in and ask for a much cheaper tourist visa. It looks like it just depends on the day, the time of day, and who is looking at things, what they had for breakfast, and whether or not they simply feel like putting the stamp on it that day or not. To be continued….

Originally published at cam-hera.blogspot.com.

Wine For Water Event Report

// June 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Wine For Water

I spent the day at CAWST taking part in their annual Learning Exchange – a gathering of engineers, project managers and volunteers from CAWST’s network all over the world. HIV/AIDS dominated the day’s sessions, but Wine for Water was the talk of the breaks.

Everyone’s eyes went wide when they learned how much we generated in one evening. “You want a job?” someone said. (I don’t think they were kidding.)

Wine for Water, in its original conception, was a little rent-raiser for Melanie The Volunteer. As I’ve said before, your mortgage payments don’t just stop because you’re off saving the world. But I never expected more than 20 people and maybe fifteen hundred bucks.

My expectations were spectacularly off the mark.

We generated over $7,000 – more than FOUR TIMES what I’d anticipated. At the final tally, we had 48 guests, including CAWST CEO Camille Dow-Baker and some of Calgary’s most affluent and generous citizens. We had more than thirty auction items donated, one item selling for a whopping $1,650 at the live auction. Our event sponsors were floored – they had no idea it was going to be that well-attended or that successful.

To be honest, none of us did.

Generating $7,000 was beyond my imagination and it’s now left me with a bit of a conundrum. As I said, it was intended as a wee little rent-raiser to help me cover my costs, and so when I say “This is bigger than me,” I mean it. What we created is way larger in scope than any of us intended and I no longer feel comfortable using the funds for myself.

So, now I’m in the process of figuring out what to do with this amazing, powerful chunk of change. (I use the word ‘change’ intentionally.)

One of the ideas is to put it towards supporting the as-yet-unfunded Nepal portion of the project. I spoke with the Nepalese contact today and he’d be thrilled to have us come and tell his country’s part of the story.

However, I had another idea over the weekend, which basically consisted of a series of insights going in this direction: Why is it only these countries? Why is it only two artists working in two media (words and photos)? What about a network of artists documenting this story in different forms all over the world?

Suffice it to say this falls into the Big Ideas That Need Time To Brew category.

Regardless, I wanted to share all that in the name of transparency. And I’ll continue to do so as my thoughts and ideas clarify, but I have to say, NOT making rent has never felt so good!

Indian Visa, Part 3

// June 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // Travel Planning

Visa just arrived in the mail.

India, baby! We’re goin’ to INDIAAAAAAAA!

What The Bleep Am I Doing?

// June 4th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Travel Planning

We’re at T-minus five-weeks-and-one-day until we leave and I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing right now. Seriously. How does one prepare for a two-month, two-country, two-season virgin voyage to the Third World?

The only thing anyone seems to be able to offer me is: ‘DIDJA GETCHER SHOTS?’ And while that is 100% valid and yes-I’m-on-it, vaccination won’t really help me in a day-to-day I’m-in-the-middle-of-Africa sense. (more…)

Indian Visas, Part 2

// June 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Travel Planning

In the mailbox this morning was my pre-paid Priority envelope from the Indian Consulate. I opened it to find a staple right through my face (okay, a photo of my face) and the message ‘Received Without Passport.’

Apparently a photocopy of my passport wasn’t enough.

I was supposed to mail it to the office in Vancouver. The office where they don’t answer the phone. The office I’ve never seen and can’t even be sure EXISTS. Where it’s entirely possible my passport could slip through a crack in the space-time-India continuum and never be seen again. (more…)

Final-Final (We Swear!) Itinerary

// May 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Travel Planning

10 JUL 09  -  FRIDAY

LV CALGARY INTL AB 21:35           08HR 50MIN

11 JUL 09  -  SATURDAY

AR LONDON HEATHROW 13:25
DRINK TEA, EAT CRUMPETS
LV LONDON HEATHROW 19:05 10HR 50MIN (more…)

Indian Visas

// May 23rd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Travel Planning

Applying for my Indian visa was a two-day affair. (So far anyway.) On Day One, I got as far as finding three different web sites for the Indian Consulate, each one telling me something different.

On one site, I learned that there are no less than 15 KINDS of visas, each with distinct hoops to jump through and unique fees, ranging anywhere from $31 to $416.

Around the same point, one of my Facebook friends contributed this bit of wisdom: “EVERYTHING in India is a struggle. Getting lunch is a struggle. Getting the laundry done is a struggle. Getting on a train? Don’t plan on doing anything else that day.”

Oh. (more…)

First World Problems

// May 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // First World Water, WaterStories

As the honeymoon of ‘OMG I’M GOING TO AFRICA!’ wears off and the reality of ‘OMG How Am I Going To Pay My Mortgage While Working For Free?’ kicks in, my concerns strike me as a little tacky in light of people who DON’T HAVE HOMES in the first place.

Maybe I could take on some freelance work while I’m over there. Nothing says irony like writing about condo developments while living in a dirt hut in Zambia. (more…)

This? Is a Biosand Filter

// May 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // Water 101

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