Safe Drinking Water

For the last few weeks, Mariel and I have been going to the Rabelais Hotel swimming pool on the weekends. They have a great unspoken deal. It is supposed to cost 3,500 cfa (roughly $7.50) to swim there for the day. But... if you buy 4,000 cfa worth of food they don't add the swimming fee to your bill. So we go there with some of our friends early in the morning before the crowds come, swim, hang out, read, and then eat lunch.

It is the ultimate Peace Corps betrayal. I remember spending hot season not being able to sleep past 6am because it was already 95 degree and I was already soaked in my own sweat. So while, I am living it up poolside, its hard not to feel a twinge of guilt knowing what everyone else is bearing.

Its easy to slip into a post-Peace Corps life here in Bamako where things are so easily obtained. After all, if I want water I no longer pull it from a well, pour it into a bucket, haul it to my water filter, pour it into the water filter, wait 3-5 hours for the filter to process the disgusting filth out of the water, pour the filtered water into to the clay pot that acts as a quasi cooling device, add a few cap-fulls of bleach, and finally wait 2 hours for the water to cool to just below room temperature (105 degrees F) before quenching my thirst. No, I do not do that anymore.

Now, I go to the sink and pour city-treated water into a bottle and put into my freezer and while I wait for it to cool, I pull out the water bottle that is already in the freezer and enjoy nice clean, cold water.

There are many reasons not to drink bottled water and opt instead for tap water as Mariel and I do. But, today at the swimming pool I think the one about tap water being just as good as bottled water is no longer one for me. I think one more filtering cycle could be used on the water coming from the tap in my house. Can you tell the difference between bottled water and water from the tap in my house?