getting things done

Two white ladies are walking down the street.
One stops and asks where she can get a nice glass of water?
“You have to go to the water pump and pay, then you can have a glass of water”, someone replys, “but you must have a card in order for the water to come out and on that card must be credit, otherwise, you will not get your nice glass of water”
The white lady says that she does not have a card and asks where she can obtain one.
“The municipality of course, but that is a far walk, you can take taxi if you have the money.”
Luckily the white lady has the $N7 to take the taxi to the municipality that is over a couple kilometers away.
When she arrives she sees lines out the door.
“How long have you been waiting?” the white lady asks the crowd.
“I have been here ALLL morning”, exclaims the African woman, “waiting in line. Even when they closed down the office so that the employees could go eat lunch, I waited… I am thirsty from the far walk here and I just want my card so that I can go home, shower and cook a nice meal for my family, but the lines are moving slowly because only two people are working.”
The white lady sits outside thinking about joining the long line so that she can finally get her nice glass of water.
But then she remembers, “I am white. Why am I waiting for this nice glass of water when I can go home, drink a nice glass of water from my tap, take a hot shower to get this dust off of me, and cook some spaghetti?”
She slowly turns around, remembers she another $7 for her taxi ride home and walks to the corner to hail a cab, leaving the crowd of Africans waiting for their water cards so they too, just like her, can enjoy a nice glass of water.

Today we got a lot done with Christa. We bought 60 things of formula and ordered another 360, because we cleared out their stock. We got her a new printer that can copy and fax as well as scan. This helps her immensely for she has to copy the mother and child’s birth certificates/id’s for her books. She also prints out a lot of proposals to pass out and this will help her a lot in alleviating the cost of copies. We also purchased about 45 sippy cups and tomorrow we will be purchasing more food for her hampers that she gives out to mothers and their children who are currently taking ARV’s.
Along the way we decided to stop and try to get our water cards that we will be supplying to mothers both at FHS and Mt. Sinai. When we went to the MAIN municipality offices in downtown Windhoek, they told us that they did not sell any there and to check with other local offices. They were anything but helpful in telling us some places to go so that we could obtain our cards. A water card is a big deal here, especially for people living in the settlements. Not only might they have to travel a distance to fetch a drum of water, they also have to pay each time. If they do not have a water card in the first place, a lot of times they are forced to either go without water, borrow a neighbors card (which sometimes the neighbor will charge a fee), or take from a communal tap that is often times shut off by the municipality due to insufficient community funds (people don’t pay). The card itself, without any credit on it costs around $N100. I have been told to fill a drum is about $N10. It is a lot cheaper to do it this way, than it is to take from a community tap where one if charged monthly. In both cases, it is up to the municipality if they want to shut it off for a day or two. One day as we were walking through Havana I took a picture of a woman filling her drum and another woman walked by yelling at us saying that yesterday the water was shut off and what is she suppose to do when that happens: “I have a family to feed and clothes to wash.” Water is a commodity here, and it is being rationed and limited in the areas where people need it most. It is no wonder HIV/AIDS runs rampant in these communities and people get sick and die so rapidly. Not only can are they trying to survive off of the little food they have each day, they also don’t have unlimited access to the one thing that ever human should and that is clean water.
So, needless to say, we were given the run around when trying to purchase water cards. Christa would have to purchase them, but even so she could only purchase one for herself and no one else. The people we wanted to purchase them for would need to come in, fill out paperwork, present an ID and an erf number (address). Thankfully, we have connections. We went to Phil at the Humans Right’s center right up the block from where we are staying and told him about what happened and showed him the pictures of the lines that we saw outside the Ombili municipality. He got on the phone, made a call to the person in charge of that municipality there, Isis, and demanded that she give us 50 water cards because it is a human right and we are an organization that is trying to give clean water to mothers who are going to feed their babies. The woman said she would get back to him tomorrow. I don’t know if she is going to follow through, but the fact that we had connections both troubles and pleased me all at the same time. What happens to those that don’t have the connections and continue to wait in those lines for their cards? What happens to those people that cannot afford that N$100 to buy a water card? What if someone doesn’t have an ID, or an permanent addresses to show? What would have we done if we didn’t have that connection with Phil? This is a very bureaucratic process for a person to be able to have access to water and I feel that a few profit off of the majority of people’s struggle to be able to live. Hopefully this will be resolved and the fact that we can pose as an organization helping people gain access to water (which is true) will benefit us so that we can actually help out 50 people not worry about how they can get water.
Gratitude List:

A toilet that flushes.
A toilet in my house that isn’t a hole in the ground outside.
Access to clean water that comes out of a tap from my house.
Long Hot Showers
The fact that my toilet water at home is probably cleaner than the water in the settlements here.
Ice.
Washing Machines
Electricity
My good health (knock on wood)
People that watch our backs here, making sure to tell us when to watch our stuff.
TOILET PAPER!!!!!!


Things that need changing:
More access to water
Better access to healthcare- one that is up to standards-update public hospitals.
More access to a good education. ( in theory it is suppose to be free of charge? But in practice???????)
HIV/Aids Education.. Rollout of free ARV’s
More Gov. involvement on the ground (slumber party for the MP’s in the settlements?)
Water Cards for All (free of charge for the card, charge for water?)