Obsessed with Water

Water. After hiking 700 miles through the desert, I've become obsessed with it. Water is life. Water is everything. My days are planned around getting fro one water source to the next, carrying enough to not get dehydrated, and filtering. Water is what it's all about.

Last year, when most of social media was filled with people dumping buckets of water over their heads, there was another, less known challenge going on, as well. It's called the 4 liter challenge. The idea is to live as those who live in extreme poverty do- on 4 liters of water a day. That's not just to drink. That's for everything: washing, cleaning, cooking, and drinking. Four liters of water is not a lot. Just ask Shuffle.

People who do not have access to water, like those in Haiti, often have to walk for miles to get to a wate source and then carry what they collect back to their homes for use. Let me tell you: water is heavy! (I actually think 4 liters is a pretty generous estimate. Four liters weighs 12 pounds, roughly. Try carrying 12 pounds of water 3-4 miles when you are really tired and hungry. I'd guess most people in poverty live on less)

Then there's the question of cleanliness. It's ine thing to carry 4 liters of water home to use. It's another to carry 4 liters of contaminated water home for use- and having everyone get sick! Not just water- clean water is life!

On the trail, I have 2 ways of purifying water: I have a lightweight filter, and I have a backup system of Aquamira tablets if the filter gets clogged. If the water source looks particularly sketchy, I double treat.

The Devoted to Children Home in Haiti uses a filtering system similar to the one I use on the trail. D2C has also provided filters to neighboring homes on the area. And one of the organizations D2C has partnered with, Surf Haiti, has a mission to provide homes with locally manufactured filter for clean water.

Clean water is everything. Clean water is life.

My filter.

To learn more about Devoted to Childrensnd their projects, to to Devoted2children.org.

To donate to my hike for charity, click on the causes tab.