Dancing for Water

Pop science and pastor's sermons are full of anecdotes about blind men confused by what they see when they are either medically or miraculously (why not both?) granted the gift of sight. So I guess I should not be surprised that I am only now, three years after having my own eyes opened to the tragedy in Africa, beginning to realize the role I have to play. During the year prior to our first adoption, when Beth and I were still a young, free couple in the enchanting city of Chicago, I held two freelance jobs in addition to my full-time employment - proof I had too much time on my hands!

The first was as webmaster for the newly founded Crux Magazine. Crux then existed online as an online journal, but now is "full grown" as Salvo Magazine. It was while performing this job that I remember running across an article by Liam Scheff that, among other things, asserted that HIV/AIDS in Africa is being treated as a sexual disease, but is above all a disease of poverty. Like malaria before it, HIV/AIDS is set to wipe out the impoverished while deaths and even new cases dwindle in the wealthy west. I remember being struck by the idea that above all else, above drug cocktails and condom lessons, the citizens of Africa were in desperate need of clean drinking water.

Perhaps this article affected me so strongly because my other freelance job was with the non-profit Awassa Children's Project, an organization dedicated to housing, feeding, educating, providing health care and AIDS Education to children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic in Africa. (I actually edited this video for them.) I remember driving into the heart of Chicago after work to Bullet Proof Film and working on their old Media 100 to cut together video images of beautiful Ethiopian children orphaned by the ongoing pandemic.

With this newly found information, I understood what Bono - a long time favorite artist - was doing when he used his celebrity to urge wealthy nations to forgive African debt. And I was proud of our country when George W. Bush promised an unprecedented 15 billion dollars in financial aid to the fight against AIDS in Africa in his 2003 State of the Union Address. However, in spite of understanding the reality of HIV/AIDS in Africa, I let it remain someone else's problem.

Then came Tesi. When Beth first met Tesi, she and her husband were already in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. And after bringing her son home, and seeing firsthand what was going on in Africa, she wanted to do even more about it. So she asked us to dance. Dance you ask? How will that help? Well, we're dancing for a reason, or more specifically for water. She and her sister-in-law started a blog, Dancing for Water, then coerced and cajoled amazing amounts of people into dancing, all to raise awareness for Charity: Water, a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. (You may even recognize Beth in this video.)

As Beth explained in the previous blog, we have decided to follow in Tesi's footsteps as we adopt our next child from Ethiopia. But tonight, we follow in her footsteps and dance! Or rather, get the boys to dance. As you enjoy the video below, keep in mind why we're dancing and afterward be sure to check out Charity: Water. Donate if you can, but if you can't... DANCE!