Friday, July 27, 2007

Arsenic and Old Lace

Yesterday I to a small village to test their drinking water for arsenic with Sua, a local Christian and RDI employee. Sua and I share a common love of Manchester United and 1960's motown songs (our rendition of "Uptown Girl" was pretty much amazing), so we had a really good time.

Getting to these small villages is an adventure in and of itself, which includes taking ferries, 4 wheel drive only roads, and crossing really sketchy, rickety bridges.

Driving home we went through the downtown /tourist area, including the gorgeous multi-million dollar mansions built by government officials who pocket almost all of the humantarian aid/relief money (remember that next time you donate to the U.N. or Red Cross).

It's such a tragic and disgusting contrast to families we visited, who literally lived in houses without walls- just a sheet metal roof with dirt floors.

No comments: