We had some special birthday celebrations going on in my circle this weekend. A “true blue” birthday party for an artist friend/neighbor for which we all wore only blue. The birthday of my recently married former roommate who was celebrating newly married life and a new year of life in Florence (one of my dream destinations). And then there was the first birthday party of this adorable nephew of mine who turned one on Saturday.
You can see that he enjoyed his cake!
I got my 3-year-old nephew a play doctor’s kit for Christmas. G is very into imaginative play, and as soon as he opened it up, he had all the equipment out and was giving Aunt Dr. Rachel a thorough check-up. His doctor’s kit conveniently included a pair of scholarly spectacles, as well as a pager and a cellphone ( no buying into the medical myth that cellphones are dangerous in hospitals! ), and he was quickly running around with his doctor’s bag, answering pages, and shouting, “It’s an emergency! I have to get to the hospital right away!”
These days, the thing that I like most about staying in a hotel is being able to wash my face with warm water. A simple luxury, really, but one that eludes me in both the house that I own in Indianapolis and the home that I rent in Kenya. Oh, the bliss of washing with warm water…
In Indianapolis, the ecologically friendly features that make my little red house secretly a green house collide in an unfortunate manner to take away my ability to get hot water from the faucet. The combination of the tankless hot water heater and the low-flow faucets and their respective locations in the house mean that the water coming from the sink faucets does not get warm. In Kenya, my shower is heated by an electric “instant” hot water heater, but there is no water heater for the faucets. And so, the two places where I primarily live do not allow me wash my face with warm water (something I try to do before bed, when I am often cold and shivering already.) In my hotel room, the luxury of a wet washcloth that almost scalds me seems magnificent compared to the gasp-inducing washing I normally experience.
If I stay at your house and you have hot water coming out of your faucets, you may notice that I spend an inordinate amount of time in the bathroom before bedtime. It’s not a fancy regimen of cleansing and creams that delays me; I’m just enamored with your warm water.
My pleasure in the soothing embrace of a warm washing reminds me, though, what a precious gift it is to have the easy access to the clean, safe water that I enjoy. Hot or cold. I am so gifted in my access to clean water. Diseases from unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation kill more people every year than all forms of violence. Children are especially vulnerable, as they are the ones who get the most severely sick from diarrhea, dysentery and other illnesses that hide in unclean water.
It’s startling to think that 30,000 people die every week from the diseases caused by unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions. And 90% of those deaths are in children under the age of five. Children the ages of my precious nephews with whom I romped and danced and ate birthday cake this weekend.
We could prevent most of these deaths just by improving the world’s water supply and sanitation. This is my new resolution for the occasions when I get to wash my face my with warm water. Every time I enjoy that bit of pleasure from a temporarily improved water situation, I’m going to make a small donation to an organization that provides clean water options for families in sub-Saharan Africa. (Some of my favorites: Ugandan Water Project , blood:water mission , charity: water )
I’m blinking in amazement that a week of vacation has passed, and it’s time to dive into a busy January to start 2012. I wish I had as much enthusiasm as the dogs, who specialize in warm welcomes and great delight. As I sit here still surrounded by the detritus of unpacking, I thought I would post a few photos of the precious people with whom I’ve spent the last few days to help me muster a bit of energy.
First, there are the adorable nephews. A joy to play with and to make smile and to get to know in their various life stages. We missed each other when it was time to part ways in New York.
In Philadelphia, the happy images are from the wedding of a dear friend of many years. My former college roommate was a beaming, truly radiant bride, and it was a privilege to share in the joy of her wedding to a man with whom she is deeply in love. Just look at her delight coming down the aisle…
(I wore a Kenyan dress for the wedding because I knew Emily would love it. I have to admit — one kind of hates to be photographed next to such a lovely bride!)
We had an unexpected owl theme to a number of our gifts… Amazingly enough, there were even more owls than captured in these photos.
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