Thank the Lord for Clean Water

And now an advertisement...



When we were preparing to go on this trip, one consideration for me was where I was going to get good water in all the countries we were going to. Since there are so many of us in our family, buying bottled water everywhere we go for four months would be very expensive, not counting the times and places where good water might not be available. We purchased a pump water filter for the family, but this takes time to set up so it was not the best solution for having good water all the time.



Our plan, which actually worked very well ,was to pump several gallons of water at a time so that we did not run out. However, I drink water almost continually and I very, very rarely drink any carbonated drinks. Because I am still nursing our baby, I did not want any situation where I would be without good water. I also didn't want to change water every few days.



I found what worked perfectly for our situation, and I thought that there might be other missionaries or short term trip takers that might like to know about my water bottle. The water bottle that I took for these last four months through thirty countries including several third world countries and Africa, is a bottle that has a special filter built into it. You can buy bottles with filters to improve taste and to moderately reduce chlorine, etc., but this is not what this filter is. It says on the side of the bottle, "Serious Protection," and that is what it is.



Basically, you can take any water source whether it is coming from a kitchen tap in Moldova or a river in Morocco and the filter will bring the water up to the World Health Organization's water safety standards. It is an instant filtration system as the suction of drinking forces the water through the filter. This bottle was invaluable for me as I could just walk into any place and fill it up while the others had to either stop and pump or try to find quality bottled water. Not only that, but it gave me a continual source of water that remained the same for four months.



The bottle is very durable as it has been dropped numerous times on our trip. The only disadvantages that I found was that it is just a little bulky without having a handle. Another small annoyance is that it stresses airport and other security officers a little bit when I carry it through. It is a semi transparent bottle and the filter contraption inside makes it look as if I might be carrying some highly explosive water bottle. I never was stopped in security, but it did attract a few extra stares.



If you are going on a short term trip overseas or if you are going long-term, you may want to go to Walmart.com and check it out. It's called the Sawyer serious protection water bottle. Although buying the bottle is between thirty to fourty dollars up front, it's good for 500 fill ups and since it's a large bottle to start with, it's a good deal all the way around. That's my advertisement for today. Here's the link to see the specs... http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8283710. Let me know if you try it out and if you like it!