Usually the only thing Thai grandmas push in our world is fruit. Whenever there is a glut of local Thai fruit (feels like every other week), it is gifted, rather insistently, by a sweet Thai grandma. They are hard to refuse, and so we eat tons of fruit. Not always terribly willingly - we feel like eating oranges but have 17 gifted pineapples choking the fridge.
Being a western person in Asia, the close proximity and lack of personal boundaries in the Thai village can be a little hard to take sometimes. I put my garbage out neatly twice a week, and within 5 mins the old uncle next door is going through my carefully sorted recycling, looking for things he can use or sell. Which is how all the 3 households in the soi (laneway) where we live knew how we were buying our bottled water. Living here just a few months and having been overwhelmed with several floods, electrical problems, start of the school year, fever, overseas visitors and business start ups and transitions, I simply had not yet got around to locating the local water delivery guy. And so we had just been picking up 5 litre large plastic bottles from the minimart at odd hours. Honestly, Locate the glass water delivery guy had been on my solo-mama rather-long to-do list for too long. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.
Until I came home recently from the morning school run and was accosted by the Thai grandma marching up our soi. We love her, and she's feisty and she's sharp, albeit a little intimidating. She brought us food to welcome us to the neighbourhood. And on this occasion she marched right over to the gate and told me in no uncertain terms it was about time I changed my drinking water choice. Cos she had SEEN how many large plastic bottles we put out for recycling.
"Glass bottle!" she said. "So much better. Clean. Healthy. Taste good." Her clipped Northern Thai made it sound like she was barking an order rather than a sales pitch, but really she was just unusually enthusiastic to ensure we got the BEST thing going in the neighbourhood.
I laughed and reassured her that WE ARE GLASS PEOPLE and that my business has been using and promoting clean, clear glass for 12 years already, but that I simply hadn't known where to find the special water guy who does the glass bottles. She relaxed and as she smiled, the water truck swung into our soi. She clearly had been waiting for him.
Perfect. Everyone was introduced. He smiled, she smiled, I paid and the whole thing was sorted, Thai style.
By Thai standards, it is expensive. 12 x 750ml bottles for 50 baht. Whereas the working class Thai people can buy 20 liters of water, in recyclable plastic, for 28 baht. Just under $1.
"But no fluoride!", she said. As if paying has not yet already clinched the deal. "And plastic make the water taste bad."
So. We are sorted. Every Thursday morning he carries my glass bottled water into the kitchen for me.
"Too heavy for nice lady!" he said. :)
And for $3 per week we have pristine, glass-bottled reverse osmosis water delivered to our kitchen. The water guy has another customer, which matters in a country with no pensions or unemployment benefits, and the evil foreign-owned convenience store has lost that part of our business. Feels good
But what feels BEST is that this old Thai lady already understands the "no plastic" thing, both in terms of the environment but more importantly for health. When the desire for a cleaner environment and better purchasing choices comes from Thai people and not opinionated western zealots, we can breathe and relax and know that real change IS happening.
Is bottled water really necessary, I hear you ask. Of yes. In an Asian country with poor plumbing and sewerage infrastructure, tropical bugs and a climate that makes things breed like you have never seen before, tap water is not an option. We used to have a private well in our other house, and I asked someone about the safety factor. He pointed to the septic tank less than 50 feet away from the well and sadly shook his head. When it rains heavily, as it does for about half the year here, the ecoli contaminates the ground water and renders it unsafe. But if I were in the USA I would equally argue that bottled water is now that only safe alternative, as fracking chemicals contaminate groundwater and create disease. Not to mention toxic fluoride.
So bottled water it is. Sustainable. Creating employment. Convenient.
I'm hopeful that the developing world is beginning to deal with sustainability better and more quickly that the so called 'first world'. We have less industry to undo, less expectation of convenience and the people willing to schlep water from door to door as a job.
BlissednBlessed in my Thai world. Grateful and happy to report that sustainability IS on the local Thai agenda.
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