Good morning John. This morning I woke up,
used some water, then I used some more water,
then I used some water, and used some more
water again. If you walk around my house and
jostle enough silver things, there's a really
good chance that clean, safe, delicious, cold
or hot water will start leaking out of somewhere.
This is a nickel. If I see a nickel on the
sidewalk, there is a fairly good chance that
I won't even stop to pick it up. All the water
that I used this morning cost me about one
nickel. March 22nd is World Water Day; John,
I think that we should take a moment to think
about how freaking awesome our lives are.
Last week, I woke up in Miami. I got on a
plane, landed in Port-au-Prince, then I got
on another much smaller, much bumpier, much
scarier plane and then landed in a place called
Pignon, a place of about twenty thousand people
in central Haiti. I went to Pignon with Water.org
to meet the people who live there and find
out how those people live their lives.
The morning after arriving in Haiti, I rode
in the back of a truck to Savann Tabak, a
village of about sixty households. The people
of Savann Tabak got one of Water.org's carefully
selected local partners involved by sending
a letter to the mayor of Pignon explaining
their situation.
These people are the well committee; they
are the people who, in a perfect world, wrote
the letter together expressing an interest
to have some organization come in and help
them build a well. Two of these guys, Gloolinot
here and Botes on the other end, clearly were
the guys who actually wrote the letter. The
rest of the people were wrangled by Water.org's
requirement to have a broader coalition be
formed. This coalition is necessary because
otherwise Botes and Gloolinot could just say
that they're the ones who brought the well
to the community and that everyone owes them
a gigantic debt of gratitude, and in the worst
case scenario, they could actually start selling
water for their own personal profit.
These guys actually seemed a little bit frustrated
with the process. They seemed to think that
Water.org should just come and drill the well
and leave them alone and not change the way
any of the stuff is working. But since Water.org
requires this committee to be formed, a committee
with people from different genders, different
religions, different neighborhoods, different
families, the well becomes an asset of the
community, not of one church or of one family.
This woman, Ulna, obviously has seen a lot
and wasn't takin' no lip from no one. I wouldn't
want her as a second grade teacher, but I
would be happy having her represent me in
local government.
Isaiid, the old guy at the end here, he was
cracking jokes the whole time, trying to make
everybody feel more at ease, and he was obviously
a very well-respected member of the community.
Jan Baptiste was the woman in the middle who
I didn't catch while she was standing up - she
was a quiet woman, but she was obviously there
for her kids. She was very frustrated by the
fact that her kids had been sick and that
they spent more time fetching water than they
did at school.
Genna, this girl in the awesome hat, the youngest
member of the well committee, was probably
the most frustrated of everyone. She knew
that there had to be a better way, but she
wasn't interested at all in begging. She was
just fed up with the situation and hadn't
yet reached an age where she thought that
it was intractable. She thought that there
was a solution, and she was really ready for
that solution. She seemed really able to step
outside of the situation and be able to critique
it in a way that was humorous, not overly
critical. I just said that she could critique
it without being critical. That is how awesome
she was.
These are the people of the Savann Tabak well
committee, and this is mostly what I wanted
to do today. I just wanted to introduce you
to them. And now what I want you to do is
go to my.water.org/vlogbrothers and you can
follow this community as they meet their milestones.
Water.org has a very specific outline of what
needs to happen for a community to come together
and create a sustainable water project. Not
just something that will help them for the
next six months, but something that will really
redefine their community.
I learned a lot of things in Haiti, one of
the most important was that not all non-profit
organizations are created equal. And now myself,
having done the due diligence and seeing the
way that Water.org operates, I’m very comfortable
asking you to donate money to Water.org. The
people of Savann Tabak have a lot of hard
work to do before they can have a sustainable
source of water in their community, but we
can do our part as well, following them on
that journey and helping them through that
journey. There is no amount that is too great
or small, we’re just helping people get
out of a situation that sucks.
Thanks to Water.org and Haiti Outreach and
all the amazing people who were able to help
me bring this story onto the YouTube-sized
screen, whatever sized screen this is. And
if you want to check out more videos from
Haiti, Lisa Nova and Timothy DeLaGhetto were
there with me; you should check out their
channels; they just made videos about Haiti
as well.
John, I’ll see you on Wednesday.
