The one thing everyone warned us about before we came was to not eat soft-skinned fruit. Also, don't drink water from the tap.
Well, today at Violet's school for snack they served grapes. Grapes rinsed in the sink, under the tap water.
Before I knew what had happened, she had eaten an entire fist-full. I asked one of the teachers if they had been rinsed in filtered water and she said no. And, that if I wanted to pick some from the plate and go in the kitchen myself and rinse them off for Violet in the filtered water then I should go right ahead. The other children and their immune systems, I guess, were fine with grapes rinsed in the amoeba water.
It's a strange and scary thing with the water here. It is the one thing that really makes me feel as though we are profoundly lucky as Americans; to have something as simple as clean, drinkable water just running freely in our homes, in our bathtubs and sinks and toilets, even in our public drinking-fountains; it really is not an issue whatsoever. Water safety has really never, not once ever, passed through my mind back home in the way it does here.
Every single bit of water we drink or brush our teeth with has to be either boiled or filter, or both. And, Violet's bath water? Well, on the days that I plan for her to have a bath, I have to boil about 7 big pots of water. Also, we brought with us something called a SteriPEN. It's this little device that looks a bit like a pen (hence, the name), and you stick it in your glass of contaminated water and it uses uv-light to kill off or sterilize the bacteria. We really started using this religiously after Violet got sick, and so far things are on the up-and-up (fingers crossed!)
There's much much much more to say about water in India-- as a political topic, as a social topic, as a health concern.... so maybe we will come back to this another day. But now it is night, so sweet dreams to us and to you as you start your day that we already lived.
Well, today at Violet's school for snack they served grapes. Grapes rinsed in the sink, under the tap water.
Before I knew what had happened, she had eaten an entire fist-full. I asked one of the teachers if they had been rinsed in filtered water and she said no. And, that if I wanted to pick some from the plate and go in the kitchen myself and rinse them off for Violet in the filtered water then I should go right ahead. The other children and their immune systems, I guess, were fine with grapes rinsed in the amoeba water.
It's a strange and scary thing with the water here. It is the one thing that really makes me feel as though we are profoundly lucky as Americans; to have something as simple as clean, drinkable water just running freely in our homes, in our bathtubs and sinks and toilets, even in our public drinking-fountains; it really is not an issue whatsoever. Water safety has really never, not once ever, passed through my mind back home in the way it does here.
Every single bit of water we drink or brush our teeth with has to be either boiled or filter, or both. And, Violet's bath water? Well, on the days that I plan for her to have a bath, I have to boil about 7 big pots of water. Also, we brought with us something called a SteriPEN. It's this little device that looks a bit like a pen (hence, the name), and you stick it in your glass of contaminated water and it uses uv-light to kill off or sterilize the bacteria. We really started using this religiously after Violet got sick, and so far things are on the up-and-up (fingers crossed!)
There's much much much more to say about water in India-- as a political topic, as a social topic, as a health concern.... so maybe we will come back to this another day. But now it is night, so sweet dreams to us and to you as you start your day that we already lived.
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