Y’all know that I love charity: water. Love what they do, love how they do it. Eric and I have supported them for years, and in fact, Eric’s wedding present to me was a big water project in Bangladesh through charity: water. He couldn’t have picked a more perfect gift.

So back in August I discovered an organization called Water for Panama. Perfect for me, right? They’re in Panama, they are helping people to get water…this is great. So I emailed the young woman who was running it from St. Louis to see if she could use some help on the ground. She told me she wasn’t really sure how she could use me yet, but that she was interested in staying in touch and she would let me know when they organized their next trip down there.

This is the area of Panama in which they work:

The yellow pointers mark the communities of the indigenous Ngöbe-Buglé people with whom Solea Water works.

Today I decided to check in, let her know that we’re less than a month away from leaving, and to see what her status is. Turns out that Water for Panama has merged with Solea Water and now they’re also collecting and distributing shoes or something.  I haven’t explored that side yet.  Anyway, she said she has a few trips coming up in April or May and she would love to loop me in then.  I’m trying to think of how I could [gently] offer to go in ahead of time to prepare for anything or…get photos for the website or anything like that.  I dunno.  I just like the idea of getting involved and don’t quite know what to do…or whether they’d want me to do something even if I thought of what I could do.

I did a little research about social media use in nonprofits tonight.  Charity: water does such an amazing job of branding themselves, of using social media, of advertising, of throwing a lavish ball once a year with celebrity hosts, but of still keeping it a 100% donation model that keeps every donor apprised of where each donation ends up, down to the GPS coordinates.  It is so exciting to get those emails saying that your well, the well you helped to fund, is being built in X community in X country.  Or even better, to get the email that gives you real photos of real people who are using the water that you helped them to have access to.  Amazing.

Anyway, the UN thing is a bummer.  But I feel like there may just be something else out there for me that is a better fit.  Something less stressful…or stressful in a different way.  Something that allows me to get away from prisons and law for a bit and to really use this year that God has given me to do…who knows what?!  Scary!  Or exciting!  I get to decide which one.  And it changes minute to minute which adjective I use.