I was a father of 3 boys, in 1986, living in the good life in our first purchased home. It was December. We bought the home in late May and son #3 was born in early June.

I was 4 months into the second year of the job that brought us to the desert. I walked to work so one car was enough. I was still putting in long hours toward grading papers. The upcoming holiday break would be a welcome relief.

I came home late from work that evening. My wife told me that she took the sick baby to the doctor and was waiting for a call telling her if he need to be admitted to the hospital.

We’d never had a child in the hospital other than being born and that one time son #2 ate mushrooms and got ipecac to bring them out. I was just absorbing this news trying to figure out exactly how that insurance worked when the phone rang.

My wife got off the phone and announced that the baby had to go into the hospital immediately. He was losing weight. The doctor called it a failure to thrive.

We probably talked about the best way to get him to the hopital. She probably gave me lots of instructions on what to do. I probably said everything will be alright.

I don’t know. She put him in the car and left.

I do remember the terrible sense of inadequacy I felt. There were dirty dishes in the sink. Dirty kids clothes in piles around the house. The little guy had been unable to keep anything in him for almost 2 weeks. I’m sure all of his clothes were dirty and the 2 and 4 year olds weren’t doing their laundry either. I had no car. The closest family is 75 miles away. And those kids were probably around here somewhere.

Remembering, I can see myself standing in the living room of our home. I think I paced. I don’t think I tried to sit. I know I didn’t remember anything my wife had said. I thought I should be doing something. Then I felt guilty that I wasn’t doing anything and became even more paralyized. Who knows how long I stood dumbfounded, making my best pitch for worst father of the year.

I wish I could say I dropped to my knees and prayed. Or even stood there and prayed. I’m pretty sure I did neither. But angels arrived on my doorstep anyway.

I guess I need to explain that at Church we have a plan where everybody visits each other at home once a month. Well, you don’t get a visit from everybody in a month, just a couple. I’m supposed to visit 4 or 5 families and somebody else comes to visit me. Sounds like a great plan, huh? Well it is a great plan. But the people doing it are humans. So some times visitas don’t get made. But December can be easy to do. If you can get ahold of some cookies you can get away with just dropping in and not making an appoitment and staying very long.

So, back to the angels. The angel had been assigned to visit our family for a couple months. He hadn’t been regular, but he was about to make up for it in bucket loads. His angel supervisor (his wife) had made cookies. She directed him to take her around to his families so they could unload the cookies.

You got the picture? Let’s review. Clueless Dad standing in the middle of a house full of work not knowing what to do. Two angels on the door step with cookies about to render service to Willis unrivaled in the annals of willisdom. Yeah, that’s about right.

Angels ring the door bell. I answer and do something I never have done before or since. I stepped out onto the porch in the cold December night air and closed the door. Perhaps brain dead is not the right term for my condition at that point. But i don’t think there was much evidence to the conrary.

Being angels, they figured out pretty quickly that they were going to be doing more than delivering cookies that night. I was blathering some idiotic thing or the other. I must have given them enough information to put them in super angel mode.

It’s all a blur. Angel was doing my dishes. Angel wife was loading clothes into the washing machine and told Angel that these kids are spending the night at their home. Angel finishes loading the dishwasher and helps find coats, extra diapers and what ever else might come in handy.

I have an eternal image seared into my mind of Angel wife going to different piles of clothes, stepping on each a few times trying to find my boys shoes. After shoes were found, they got me out of my stuper long enough to get me out of the house. We all got in the Angelmobile and headed for Casa de los Angeles del Mohave.

Once there, kids were unloaded and assigned to various Angelteenagers in the house. They were to feed, clothe, bathe and bed the boys. I got back in the car and headed to the hospital with my Angel at the wheel. Angelwife headed back to my house to do laundry and dishes and who knows what other wonders.

In the 22 years since that blessed winter eve, son #3 has thrived. He is still the skinniest one in the family. I think his Dad has a bit better idea of what to do in a family crisis. And I’m sure I know how I want to treat others when they are in crisis.

OK, short version of this story is: Some people I know watched my kids when my son was in the hospital. That’s not what it was to me then. I literally could not have made it through that night without those two Angels.

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Image via Wikipedia

I’m not too excited by meme tag. You know, one blogger tells about his 6 favorite Star Wars movies and challenges 6 friends to do the same. It’s sorta like breaking your friends writer’s block with chain mail.

I don’t condemn the practice. I steal memes from other bloggers all the time. (A meme, you know, is an idea. We bloggers call things by different names so as to impress you with coolness.) I defy you to find an original idea.

It’s just that I worked through endless writing prompts all the way through college. And I’ve given hundreds more prompts to the teenagers who’ve populated my classroom chairs, lo these 25 years.

So now, S’mee over at Knot in the String has tagged me with a meme. The “NO TAGGING” neon sign seems to have not been working. I respect S’mee, and I think the idea she is spreading is a good one. So I will relent, partially. I will blog on this meme, because it’s worth stealing.

My plan is to be a stick in the mud, though. I’ve found that as a teacher, every time I open my mouth and assign a writing topic, sooner or later, somebody expects me to grade what they’ve written. They’ll be no grading here. That’s too much like work.

BTW, The writing prompt is:

• Write about a time when you were the recipient of service,
• Write about a time when you gave service,
• Write about a time when I witnessed service being done by one person to another.

I encourage you to steal this idea. When you are done with your version, let S’mee know. She grades hard but she has been known to give out stickers and cookies for good work.

Oh yeah, my response is the next post.

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Stella and Celestine

Stella is one of my newest friends. She’s going to turn 4 years old soon and she’s starting school Monday, Jan. 5. It’s a new school year for her. She goes to school at the CBSM school in Kimilili, Kenya. (Community Breakthrough Support Mission, it’s an orphanage.)

Kimilili is a town right about on the equator near the border with Uganda. It’s an agricultural area. The school moved to Kimilili when the first school in Kayole Soweto, Nairobi was burned down during post election violence in January 2008. The Army took them all 600 km to Kimilili and the farmers there figured out what to do with 250 children and their teachers.

Stella started school after her third birthday. The Mission was just getting settled into a building in Kimilili. She was in the equivalent of pre-school in the US.

But Stella had some difficulty focusing. She was sickly and missed a lot of school. She’ll do the first year of school again in 2009.

This is how the last year or so went for Stella:

• Her father died of AIDS when she was 2.
• Her mother became critically ill and could not care for Stella and her older sister Celestine.
• The girls were cared for full time by CBSM until a government health inspector closed down the home until improvements were finished. The school kept operating.
• The girls went to live with an elderly grandmother who couldn’t care for them well. But the girls could still go to the school for most of the day.
• During one of her visits to the Doctor Stella tested positive for HIV.
• She failed preschool but got an A in cute.

So Stella is excited to start her first complete school year. The improvements to the home for orphans will be finished soon. Plans are in the works for drilling a well for clean water. And the farmers in the area are generally supportive of the school and other projects CBSM is working on.

Say “Hello” to Stella in a comment here. Her teachers will read the messages to her and you just might get a response. (Remember, she’s 3.) If you have children, consider letting them get involved. One of the school’s goals is to help children learn about the outside world.

Meet the Nabuurs

CBSM is on Nabuur. (It’s pronounced like neighbor but it’s spelled funny because it’s the internet. Or maybe neighbor is spelled funny.)

Their website says:

NABUUR makes it easy to make a difference

Nabuur.com is an online volunteering platform that links Neighbours (online volunteers) with Villages (local communities) in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Connected through Nabuur.com, Neighbours and local communities learn about each other, share ideas and find solutions to local issues.

Everybody has something to offer, and everything is done online.

Do you have a little spare time and the desire to make a difference?

You’ve probably figured out the rest of the story. I was poking around the internet looking for clean water stuff. Somehow I found Nabuur and the first project I looked at had Reverend Wasike Wilberforce Walubengo’s picture and a request for someone to “Be the one to update our community’s blog with updates on the progress.”

I figured I had an hour or two I could blog about their clean water project. An hour or two turned into a bit more than that. I’ve met Rev Wasike, Lia in Germany and Moses, Daniel and Ron who are somewhere in Kenya. (I’m still matching names and faces.) The team is doing all sorts of things around Kimilili. They’re not waiting for the government to take care of them.

Best of all, I got to learn about Stella and other kids. I’ll be posting more of their stories on the CBSM blog.

So now the pitch for volunteering: Take a look at Nabuur. I don’t know what kind of time you have. But think about it. This is way better than helping out at the library or hospital. This is volunteer work you can do in your pajamas.

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A Zulu man wearing water lens glasses.

Clean water can help more than thirst it seems.

British inventor Josh Silver has come up with a design for glasses with water filled lenses. The wearer can adjust the lenses to his liking without the need for an eye specialist.  Opticians are one in a million people in Africa. So the glasses are a big hit there.

300,000 pair are in use now. Silver’ goal is 100 million.

Core 77 quotes The Guardian:

The implications of bringing glasses within the reach of poor communities are enormous, says the scientist. Literacy rates improve hugely, fishermen are able to mend their nets, women to weave clothing. During an early field trial, funded by the British government, in Ghana, Silver met a man called Henry Adjei-Mensah, whose sight had deteriorated with age, as all human sight does, and who had been forced to retire as a tailor because he could no longer see to thread the needle of his sewing machine. “So he retires. He was about 35. He could have worked for at least another 20 years. We put these specs on him, and he smiled, and threaded his needle, and sped up with this sewing machine. He can work now. He can see.”

Again, it’s not a lack of technology that keeps the poor in poverty.

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Here’s my last water post of the year. Not a lot of comment. The slide show does a good job of speaking for itself.

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Vick is in prison. The good new is that may of the dogs are being rehabilitated and have hopes of becoming peaceful house pets.

Daryn Kagan reports with the following video from her blog. Oh that it were possible to rehabilitate people with the same program.

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The future of clean water.

I’m filing this under “We Got Enough Smarts, Do We Have Enough Willpower?” in my clean water files. Here’s a fifth grader who has some interesting ideas about clean water. His mom blogged about him on Peachy Green:

Matt’s invention is designed to help clean up rivers . . .  He has come up with a way for us to do this automatically, without harming fish that live in the river.  I think his “Aqua-Bridge” invention sounds pretty advanced for a 5th grader!  Did I mention how proud I am? more…

OK. When you read the whole thing, you realize two things:

1. The kid is pretty bright. He’s taken a lot of issues into consideration.
2. The plan needs work. Hey, he’s a fifth grader, he’s still got enough time to refine the idea before he drops out of college to start a company and become a green millionaire.

So here’s the part where you can show that you are smarter. How about we do this.

Don’t throw stuff into the river.

That would include stuff from cars, boats, picnics on the river bank, factories and chemicals you can’t find anywhere else to dump. I mean, come on, it’s the 21st century. Do we have to bring the crying Indian back?

Sadly, I think this kid may yet get to make his millions picking peoples trash out of rivers.

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• Flow

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Extreme poverty in Nigeria despite of huge national wealth.

Lisa Ling, Special to CNN reports:

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (CNN) — Trash litters its cities. Electricity is sporadic at best. There is no clean water. Medical and educational services are limited. Basic infrastructure is severely lacking.

Nigeria’s corruption agency says between $300 billion to $400 billion in oil profits has been stolen or squandered.

These are not conditions that should plague one of the richest oil states in the world. Hundreds of billions of dollars has been made from the Niger Delta’s oil reserves and many people have gotten very rich. Conversely, the average Nigerian has suffered as a result of the country’s oil prosperity. The United States Agency for International Development says more than 70 percent of the country lives on less than a dollar a day — the population is among the 20 poorest in the world.

Oil companies are only part of the equation. The other is the Nigerian government. Transparency International, a global organization intent on stamping out corruption, has consistently rated Nigeria’s government one of the most corrupt in the world. more…

No clean water. That’s a sign of government dysfunction. In this case it’s corruption.

Nigeria could be one of the wealthiest countries in the world. There is plenty of money to provide clean water and sanitation. It is not a question of affording clean water. They have the means. Or some do.

The article goes on the describe an interview Ling was able to get with members of the , or MEND. The group wants to rid Nigeria of oil companies and “foreign influences.”

I can’t judge if that’s a beneficial goal. But it is basic political science. The government is not meeting the needs of the people and the people seek change.

We may not like to admit it, but the best way to get clean water to people is to change governments. Either change their thinking or change who governs.

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Villagers in Luputa carry pipe for a water project, photo via LDS Philanthropies

LDS Philanthropies Humanitarian Services Clean Water Fund has a unique, and I think superior, approach to providing access to clean water.

Two features I like:

• Local communities take part in planning, building and maintaining the water projects.
• No administrative costs, no fund raising costs- all donated money goes to build water projects.

From the Clean Water Fund webpage:

Working with local community leaders, Humanitarian Services provides access to clean water with wells and other water systems where no such service is available.

Volunteers from the village provide labor to install and maintain the wells to ensure their long-term operation. Local contractors are employed, and a local site supervisor is appointed to ensure the work is performed as agreed. Each village establishes a water committee to oversee the maintenance of the facilities.

Involving the community helps local people feel an ownership of the project, an important cultural consideration in the long-term use and proper maintenance of the water supply.

Stretching Contribution Dollars