Save a Child with water

While at the World Travel event in London in November I visited a booth that was
promoting Clean Water:  JUST A DROP, SAFE WATER =SAVED LIVES

With their permission I am posting info from the brochure given to me when I purchased a special H2WOW GP bottle.   



From Just a Drop:



*  Every 20 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease

*  768 million people i the world do NOT have access to clean, safe water

*  2.5 billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation

*   More people in the world own mobile phones than have access to a toilet



If you take a moment to think about the above numbers, it is staggering.  We have all seen the info commercials on TV where the villages have no paved road, housing is not to the standard most countries would consider suitable for families and these are NOT photos after an natural disaster but every day life.



As I contemplate my dream of a trip around the world I may never visit a town or city that falls below the poverty line but i WILL see a different standard of life.   I fear the massive crowds in India and understand that many live in spaces smaller than an American closet or even on the pavement of large cities.   I expect my visit to China will be ‘sanitized’ by the tour providers (no i don’t take tours but in China and India I will need on the ground help) so I may not see the China of the 1960’s or earlier.  

Nevertheless this appeal moved me and I purchased two of the water bottles.



Additional Information from their brochure:

“Our Mission:

To reduce child mortality caused by dirty water and poor sanitation by providing a local, clean water supply and sanitation facilities to communities worldwide

What we do

Working with local partners, we construct wells, boreholes, pipelines, hand-pumps, sand dams and latrines and support the establishment of WASH (Water and Sanitation Hygiene) educations programs.

Our projects focus on the basic water, sanitation and food security development needs of communities as identified by them. Enabling the community to operate, manage and control their own projects within a sustainable model

Just a Drop is a charity with global reach, with a particular emphasis in Africa, Asia and South America.  Projects have reached an estimated 1.5 million people.”



For  information contact Just a Drop at WWW.justadrop.org

Gateway House, 28 The Quadrant

Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1DN

email:  info@justadrop.org

Tel in the UK:  +44 (0) 20 8910 781



Disclosure:  I have not been paid for this blog post nor did I receive my water bottles complementary.  I am just sharing what I find on the road by a solo mature traveler.  I wonder if they accept volunteers for any of their projects?

LONDON: Mr. Lee, head sushi chef

Mr Lee, head sushi chef at London Whole Foods

On an earlier post about the London Whole Foods massive store, http://maturesolotravel.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/london-has-super-whole-foods.html,
I mentioned the delightful head sushi chef, Mr. Lee.

With lightening speed he prepared sushi rolls and presented them as works of art.  http://youtu.be/putj7fyvKzg to the waiting dinners.

I had a good view of the operation from the counter seat and Mr. Lee noticed me filming his work.
I don't eat raw fish or meat and had to tell Mr. Lee I did not eat sushi.  When he asked about tempura I admitted it was my favorite and he promptly brought me two of the best shrimp tempura I have eaten.

Thank you Mr. Lee for your generosity.   


While the opinions in this post and the companion post are my own and my meal was not complementary, the tempura was.  

London has a super Whole Foods!

There are Whole Foods stores in many cities across the world but NOTHING prepared me for my visit to the London store on Kensington High Street.

A massive three story former department store has been transformed into a sea of international foods and prepared meals that go on and on.  

 This was late on a Saturday afternoon and the lack of people in my photos does not indicate how busy the store was.   when I returned on Sunday for lunch it was wall to wall people buying and the restaurants were also full.

 I chose to sample the Japanese offerings and met Mr. Lee the head sushi chef who was fascinating to watch.   

Chicken Yakitori

Shrimp Tempura

As you can tell I enjoyed everything.