Water Filters Everywhere

I'm in a bit of a funk today. Combination of not enough sleep and a Vancouver Canucks loss (I wrote this paragraph 2 days ago—I'm getting over that hockey thing). Bethany seems to be in a similar funk, though I would be willing to bet that Luongo's substandard performance has little to do with it. I realize that I haven't written about the water project in a while. There's a reason for that: I don't want to.

Things aren't necessarily going poorly, but we aren't exactly firing on all cylinders these days. It's summer here in the Phils—yes April and May are even more uncomfortably hot than the other ten months of the year—and that means that our partners are busy with other things. They're running summer camps and stuff like that. Which is great, but it means they've got less time to distribute filters. Actually, that's good for us because we need to save up filters for a couple of large orders that will be going through in a couple of weeks.

So you see, there is nothing to tell you. We continue to build filters, but they're just sitting in the shop, waiting for a delivery of 260 units that is scheduled in a few weeks. How will we deliver so many filters? I'm glad you asked. The grant that was initially approved in January is due to arrive next week. We already have a really big truck picked out, and I'm hoping that nobody will buy it between now and then.

I should mention that one does not purchase "new" trucks here. All of the diesel trucks in the Philippines have been previously enjoyed in Japan. Apparently the Japanese have great disdain for any vehicle that is more than a couple of years old, so they are quick to discard them. We here in the Philippines recognize a good thing when we see it, so we import them, refurbish them, and use them long past their expiry date.

While we're waiting for things to pick up again, Toti and I have been working on a little pet project. It looks like Impact Nations will be delivering 100 filters to a poor community at the outskirts of Davao. I've written all about it, and you can download the pdf here.

Ok, that's all I have to say. Bethany and I have a baby sitter tonight and we're gonna join our friends Darrel and Shannon for a viewing of Star Trek. Wahoo! Here are a few pics of the Bird that have been hangin out on my hard drive for a while.

Cheerio,
Timmy.