More than Water

This post is going up in the early hours of Friday instead of the late hours of Thursday. Yesterday was another long day that left me falling asleep on my keyboard, so I figured it best to rest before posting rather than spelling every other word in face type. Thursday we started early, Sumner and David (Give Clean Water's Fiji Local) mapped out the homes in the community that we still needed to reach. We loaded the bus and headed to the church to load up the filters we would be distributing.

We went back to the same village, making rounds to the other half. Some of these homes were a bit closer together, so it was easier to move as a group instead of spreading out. We were blessed to be invited to drink Kava with the members of one household, and I don't care what anyone tells you about Kava, the truth is: It's gross. I can best describe it as muddy tea with a splash of Novocaine that leaves the tongue numb. Now, of course there is no Novocaine in it, that is just the effect this root drink has. It is a traditional ceremony that many Fijians practice and today (Friday) there will be another ceremony as we go to the Fijian village.

One of the best parts of this trip, as I have said before, is building relationships. This trip is about more than water, important as that is, it is about the people. It is wonderful to pray with people who are not of our faith. The people of this village are Hindu. The majority of them have alters in their yards to a god named Lord Hanuman, the monkey god. Feel free to look him up. I did, and the story is long and confusing enough that I am not going to attempt to put it here. In any case, this is who these people believe in, this is who they follow. Being welcomed into these homes and being allowed to pray for them is a blessing for us, and hopefully for them as well.