Last week this time I, like the rest of my city, was trying to make normal again our lives after Hurricane Isaac. I was very fortunate and lived on a block that was relatively spared. We had little to no severe damage that I've seen in my neighborhood. And we enjoyed relatively quick restoration of service also. We did lose power again when the transformer blew out at the Superdome but that was restored even quicker than our loss during the storm. But when the power did come back on I watched a story on the news that has changed how I think of my mission. Because I have committed this blog to be a record of our work to use art to make a positive impact on communities in sustainable ways.
Meeting Black Africa changed me like that too. Meeting him was the first time I was able to compare American working poor with working poor in a global context by my own observation. Global working poor live incomparably unequivalent. I was shocked to see how I took daily for granted, before I met him, safe drinking water and how inaccessible it was for the working poor in most countries around the world-but first in Ethiopia and then Ghana. And last week my neighbors, within 100 miles where I live, did not have access to safe drinking water. Last week while attending a workshop I had a moment that felt like knowing the answer but not knowing the question yet. It made me feel like I had been working in reverse for a long while, but I had to know the solution to the problem in order to recognize this answer.
What has ignited in me is the vision now that along with our other products, ceramic water filters will be one also. Making the filters versus purchasing clicked something like a spark inside. In 2007 I worked with a community based organization that documented its own lack of safe drinking water. I think living in the United States it is easy to forget to count ourselves in the 1 BILLION people who DO NOT have access to safe drinking water. It is a number that is fluid not stagnant.
So I just want to end this musing by announcing that our vision has expanded to not focus on the issue of safe drinking water regionally but globally. That does not change our mission to help families in Kumasi, Ghana but it has expanded, at least in this stage, to help families in Louisiana access safe drinking water. Which why I state our vision as global--bc these ceramic water filters will be available online with our other products. So after my documented rejection on this blog--I feel REDEEMED! And thank you for being on this journey with me!
Meeting Black Africa changed me like that too. Meeting him was the first time I was able to compare American working poor with working poor in a global context by my own observation. Global working poor live incomparably unequivalent. I was shocked to see how I took daily for granted, before I met him, safe drinking water and how inaccessible it was for the working poor in most countries around the world-but first in Ethiopia and then Ghana. And last week my neighbors, within 100 miles where I live, did not have access to safe drinking water. Last week while attending a workshop I had a moment that felt like knowing the answer but not knowing the question yet. It made me feel like I had been working in reverse for a long while, but I had to know the solution to the problem in order to recognize this answer.
What has ignited in me is the vision now that along with our other products, ceramic water filters will be one also. Making the filters versus purchasing clicked something like a spark inside. In 2007 I worked with a community based organization that documented its own lack of safe drinking water. I think living in the United States it is easy to forget to count ourselves in the 1 BILLION people who DO NOT have access to safe drinking water. It is a number that is fluid not stagnant.
So I just want to end this musing by announcing that our vision has expanded to not focus on the issue of safe drinking water regionally but globally. That does not change our mission to help families in Kumasi, Ghana but it has expanded, at least in this stage, to help families in Louisiana access safe drinking water. Which why I state our vision as global--bc these ceramic water filters will be available online with our other products. So after my documented rejection on this blog--I feel REDEEMED! And thank you for being on this journey with me!
Comments
Post a Comment