Things to Be Thankful For

One of the main highlights of my day today was the delivery of my new refrigerator and my new oasis.  For those who do not know what an oasis is, it is a water fountain like you see in the waiting rooms of  many doctors, you know, with the five gallon jug of water turned upside down on top of it.

You may think I need to get a life, if the delivery of  a fridge and a water fountain are a highlight of my day.
There is a short little Spanish phrase, no sirve, which basically means it doesn't work.  The nicest thing you could say about the fridge that came with the apartment is, "No sirve." 

Besides being extremely small, it took three days for the ice trays to freeze, and then they only froze on the back side, over the only two coils of the freezer that worked.   Every time you opened the door, the freezer started to defrost.  The water then ended up in the vegetable bin, seriously affecting the condition of the vegetables.   It also defrosted onto the floor, making a slip and fall hazard for someone with two left feet. 
Throw in that the electricity in the kitchen is not grounded, and you have a formula for disaster.

The oasis is important, because nobody drinks the tap water, not even the Hondurans.  The same case of 24 bottles of purified water we buy for $5.00 at Publix costs $12.00 here.  The five gallon bottle of water on my oasis costs a little less than $2.00.  As I can go through a case of water in about 3 days, this was the only way to go.

So, today I have ice cubes, a sanitary place to keep my food fresh, and clean water to drink.  That is more than most people on this earth can claim to have.  We who grew up in a privileged society, regardless of our socio-economic status,  have no clue what it is to do without clean water.  We can't imagine not having a refrigerator, and many of us can't imagine not having a refrigerator without ice and water in the door.

So, I am thankful for my new fridge, because I can keep my food fresh.  I am thankful for my oasis, because I have clean water to drink.  I am thankful for my washer, because that means I don't have to wash my clothes by hand in a pila (concrete sink with a scrub board built in), or worse yet, take my laundry to the river and beat it clean on the rocks.

I am thankful for all my blessings.