So I had told you all about our dirty water problem... well there is more and it all unfolded 2 days ago.
But first let me tell you about our water filter. As I had been putting this dirty, mucky water in our filter it was taking forever to drain and I could see the filters covered in the muddy red dirt. I knew we would have to clean it out soon so it would start to drain a little faster. I also had noticed the filtered and 'clean' water was starting to not look so clear as it once had. I told John that the water was starting to look dirty but I think he misunderstood what I was saying. I thought maybe he just thought it was harmless. So we continued to drink the water until about 2 days ago...
I approached John again saying "I really think we should clean out this filter, the water in the bottom just doesn't look that clean to me" I must have said it differently this time because he said "oh no! There must be a leak!" So we start cleaning out the top of the filter and it is just filled with dirt. Our Berkey can hold 4 different of these ceramic filters but we only were using 3 and we plugged up the other hole.
On closer examination, we saw that two out of the 4 ceramic filters were broken!!!! We had been drinking contaminated water this entire time!
John and I were shocked! We each did get sick once (what we always attribute to food poisoning... we get a fever, lack of appetite, sometimes vomiting and almost always diarrhea). But for drinking the 'city' water GUMA for almost 2.5 months with no filter that is pretty good! I can tell people have been praying for our health because we have had friends who have drank the GUMA water once and got sick just from that one time.
So we tossed the two filters away and got out another filter but it was broken too! We had let a friend borrow it while we were away and it must have broken on her bumpy journey up country. Needless to say, she felt AWFUL that they were broken.. and we will FOREVER give her a hard time for it, but it really was no big deal.
One of my first prayer requests that I tell people when they ask is for health for John, myself, and especially Aden. I give all the praise to God for answering these prayers because it is quite miraculous in my opinion how healthy we've been despite drinking contaminated water. Also, we live in a compound with 3 tanks and for some reason... the ONLY tank that got the dirt in it was the tank that feeds our house. The other tanks didn't get this soot in their water. If not for this soot, we would not have ever checked our filters to find out that they were broken.
We are now using a Katadyn filter that we luckily found on the streets here (a very rare find indeed!) and we have 4 Aqua Rain filters on the way with the next mission team that is coming!
But first let me tell you about our water filter. As I had been putting this dirty, mucky water in our filter it was taking forever to drain and I could see the filters covered in the muddy red dirt. I knew we would have to clean it out soon so it would start to drain a little faster. I also had noticed the filtered and 'clean' water was starting to not look so clear as it once had. I told John that the water was starting to look dirty but I think he misunderstood what I was saying. I thought maybe he just thought it was harmless. So we continued to drink the water until about 2 days ago...
I approached John again saying "I really think we should clean out this filter, the water in the bottom just doesn't look that clean to me" I must have said it differently this time because he said "oh no! There must be a leak!" So we start cleaning out the top of the filter and it is just filled with dirt. Our Berkey can hold 4 different of these ceramic filters but we only were using 3 and we plugged up the other hole.
On closer examination, we saw that two out of the 4 ceramic filters were broken!!!! We had been drinking contaminated water this entire time!
John and I were shocked! We each did get sick once (what we always attribute to food poisoning... we get a fever, lack of appetite, sometimes vomiting and almost always diarrhea). But for drinking the 'city' water GUMA for almost 2.5 months with no filter that is pretty good! I can tell people have been praying for our health because we have had friends who have drank the GUMA water once and got sick just from that one time.
So we tossed the two filters away and got out another filter but it was broken too! We had let a friend borrow it while we were away and it must have broken on her bumpy journey up country. Needless to say, she felt AWFUL that they were broken.. and we will FOREVER give her a hard time for it, but it really was no big deal.
One of my first prayer requests that I tell people when they ask is for health for John, myself, and especially Aden. I give all the praise to God for answering these prayers because it is quite miraculous in my opinion how healthy we've been despite drinking contaminated water. Also, we live in a compound with 3 tanks and for some reason... the ONLY tank that got the dirt in it was the tank that feeds our house. The other tanks didn't get this soot in their water. If not for this soot, we would not have ever checked our filters to find out that they were broken.
We are now using a Katadyn filter that we luckily found on the streets here (a very rare find indeed!) and we have 4 Aqua Rain filters on the way with the next mission team that is coming!
Wow! That is really fortunate! You guys must have really robust immune systems now!!
ReplyDelete