
Whenever we brought filters to rural villages in Ethiopia, we are directed to an elder. Elders are mostly men, but in the case of this one village we visted, the elder was a woman.
She motioned to one of the men to cut some of the sugar cane for us, out of great hospitality. However, she looked extremely skeptical about the system and was looking at the water as if it had been bewitched. When we all tried it, it she softened a bit and decided to take a sip.
She looked up and said, “Oh, this is good” and continued to finish the glass before letting any of the men have a taste. Of course, we just filtered more, but her dominance among the men was unexpected in the area we were visiting and quite a delight to watch.
At the end, her son came over and asked to shake each of our hands, and then the women came over to kiss each one of us and gave us blessings for what they referred to as a miracle for the village.
Clean water is a human right. Visit Waves for Water to learn more about how you can be a part of the clean water solution.