I’ll Drink to That

Last week, I decided it was time to clean our water filter. Perhaps you’ve noticed it in past photos of our kitchen, and wondered ‘Why do Ann and Chris have one of those large coffee percolators commonly found in church basements?’ But no, that lovely silver-sided freestanding beauty is our water filter. We pour Yaounde’s tap water, reputedly some of the worst in the world, into the top chamber, and it filters slowly through five thick ‘candles’ made of a chalky substance. By the time it drips through to the bottom chamber, it is supposedly free from creatures and impurities that would harm us, and ready to drink. We dispense it through a small spigot at the bottom, trying not to think too much about church basement coffee.

Because the filter had slowed down noticeably after four weeks of work, I figured it deserved a good cleaning, so once evening after dinner, I set about emptying and taking it apart. To my disgust (and fascination too), each of the five candles was pretty well coated with a layer of brown slime! And that’s just the stuff visible to the naked eye! Fortunately it came off easily with a good scrubbing, as you can see by the ‘before’ and ‘after’ picture. The next morning, everything appeared clean, dry, and ready to re-assemble, and not surprisingly, water filtered through MUCH more quickly without the slime-layer to impede its progress.

So we continue drinking our well-filtered water, grateful that neither of us has gotten sick yet, supplementing with other beverages such as beer (see article below) and the magnificent local Top Pamplemousse, the best grapefruit soda ever. And it gives me heightened concern for our sisters and brothers here and elsewhere in the world who have no choice but to drink diseased water, and renewed appreciation for places where potable water comes right out of the tap. Drink up, friends!