Give Thanks for Running Water

by JUDIE KLEINMAIER 
From the Madison Capitol Times, Dec 8, 1998


So what would you put on your list of the necessities of life?
Are the traditional food, clothing  and shelter enough? Could 
you get along without  a  phone? How about a car? At work, 
I can't even get along without a computer.

It's been a long time since I stopped to think about such a list, 
but I was brought back to the basics recently by Dr. Linnea Smith, 
who points out in her book "La Doctora" that running water is a 
luxury  not enyoyed by more than half of the world's population.

Think about it. More than 30 percent of the people on this plant 
don't have running water - or indoor plumbing, for that matter.

Smith, as many of you know, is a Wisconsin native and University of 
Wisconsin Medical School grad who started a remote jungle clinic in
1990 on the banks of the Amazon, three hours downriver from Iquitos 
in Peru's rain forest. She went on one of those exotic vacation tours 
and fell in love with the place, so she moved there. Don't call her 
noble, she says, because she's not suffering for her cause--even 
though she does live in pretty primitive conditions. She misses her 
family and friends, but she doesn't miss much in the way of "things."

Here's how she puts it:

"I sometimes find the material wealth of my own
country dismaying. I do not like like being surrounded 
by so much stuff that I literally don't know what to
do with it  all. I am afraid that we North Americans 
are too often trapped by our wealth, partly because 
we have no conception of how much of it we have. We 
don't realize, for instance, that running water is a luxury 
- oh, sure, as luxuries go, it's pretty basic (and useful, 
and comforting and healthful). But it is nonetheless a 
luxury, not a necessity."

"People lived without running water for thousands of 
years, and even today, less than half the world's 
population enjoys water piped into their houses - let 
alone multiple bathrooms or indoor and outdoor and 
upstairs and downstairs faucets."

When I read that, the first thing I thought of was my parents, both 
of whom grew up in Wisconsin in	the 1920s and 1930s without indoor 
plumbing - my dad on a farm near Shawano, my mom in the tiny burg 
called Embarrass in Waupaca County.   

I can still remember using the outhouse when we went to visit Grandma 
and Grandpa in the 1950s, and it wasn't any big deal--not that we were 
sorry when they got indoor plumbing.

Forty years later, I like to think that I'm not a person who's 
heavily into possessions.  I wear the same clothes to work over and
over, and my winter coat is so old and worn that I'm almost embarrassed 
to wear it in public.

On the other hand, my house has three bathrooms, not to mention three 
phones and three TVs, so who am I kidding? Stacked against the possessions 
of a typical family in Peru's rain forest, my loot shows that I'm stuck on 
stuff as much as the next person.

As Smith says, it can make a person feel uncomfortable.

And it did. It also made me even more appreciative of just how spoiled I 
am to live in this place at this time in the history of this planet.

Coming after her detailed chapters  describing  the challenges of both 
living and practicing medicine in the jungle, Smith's comments were 
particularly powerful. As I finished reading her book over Thanksgiving 
weekend, it seemed that my husband and I should send a check for her clinic, 
and that while we were at it, we should add a little to the annual checks 
we write to charities around this time of the year.

It's easy, by the way, to contribute to Dr. Smith's clinic. It's set up now 
as a nonprofit organization, so donations are tax deductible. They can be 
sent to: 

Amazon Medical Project, 5372 Mahocker Road, Mazomanie, WI 53560.

She doesn't want our pity, but she'll gladly take our pennies. 
If I gave her a penny	for every time I used running water 
in the past year, how much would that be?


Judie Kliemmaier is the copy desk chief for the Capitol Times
and a member of the Editorial Board.