Disappointed

I'm feeling a bit disappointed, really. I had gotten myself all excited thinking about the different tap photos people might send in. And no one has even commented. I even put it on my Facebook page, where it appears to have been ignored. My husband has consoled me, with the sage advice that people are busy and I really shouldn't have expected much. I have been a little rash, perhaps...it has only been a couple of days, so maybe you are all still out there with cameras clicking away? I guess I didn't really expect much, just hoped. It is frustrating, because I can do so little at the moment to help those in desperate need. And I believe it is just so wrong that here in New Zealand (and other developed countries) we have sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much, while others have nothing (and there are great disparities within our own society too, I am not wishing to overlook that, but at least in NZ you can get government assistance to help pay rent and buy food, get your kids to the doctor or into school, etc). So I'm disappointed. I just wanted to make a little difference in someone's life who is facing the desperation of not having a safe water source. I can't even imagine what that must be like. We currently have a broken cold tap in the kitchen. It is waiting repair. It drips constantly, and we have stopped using it, for fear that once we get it on again we might not get it off! So when I want a cold drink, I head into the bathroom and fill up one of our tallest glasses, which I then sit on the dining table and sip from until I need to refill it again. It feels like such a drama. I know it really isn't. It is still purified, drinkable water. I'm not going to get sick from it. It comes from the same place the kitchen stuff does anyway. And it is such a long way to go. Not. I mean, it is all of 10 paces or something. Not like I have to head out with a bucket and hike around our local walkway for half an hour to get a drink. Anyway, I was wanting to do more, without actually doing more myself...because I have limited time and resources, and particularly at the moment, limited money. I figured that if we all did something little, like sending in a tap photo to raise $2 for safe drinking water, that together it would make a much bigger difference than anything I could do on my own.

I guess we are all too busy. I keep forgetting that it is the end of the year, and that Christmas is nearly here. I am the least busy I have been all year, you see. I have finished study for the year. And we have a simple Christmas planned, without much shopping or preparation involved at all. So I forget that for most people there's the kids presents to get and wrap and such, and the family gatherings to prepare for. And to top it all off, in the Southern Hemisphere, there's the countless end of year gatherings, and family summer holidays to plan. It is our summer holidays you see. School has just finished for the year. Kids get six weeks or so of summer freedom, and it just seems like everything combines into one big, mad rush. So it is understandable that there's not much interest in taking photos of taps for people we've never met. Maybe I will try again in February, after all the holiday hype is over? How bizzare is that - we are too busy because of Christmas! Christmas, of all things.

Amy
Sunday, 19th December, 2010