The morning before I left the good people of the tiny village of Pueblo Nuevo, I used my SteriPEN UV light water purifier one last time as I purified one more bottle of water for my trip back to Panama City.
I got good use out of this SteriPEN but as I go back to Los Angeles, where I am lucky enough to have healthy, safe water, emergencies aside, I know my trusty SteriPEN can be put to much better use here. It will now be used to purify water for the newest baby in the village.
My only regret is that my other SteriPEN, the USB rechargeable SteriPEN was stolen by some selfish, uncaring creep so I don’t get to give another family a long-term supply of healthy water.
The SteriPEN website is full of great info about health and water so I encourage you to take a look. There are various priced models for needs such as travel, emergency readiness, hiking.
Donate your travel stuff where it can do some good
I hope I can encourage you all to leave some of your stuff behind as you return home, finding good homes for the things you take for granted but that can help people have medicines and/or better lives and health.
Note: Not that I want to put the idea out there, but earth shakes, pipes break — and I do want to have a USB rechargeable SteriPEN handy for such a circumstance. I liked knowing that should that happen, I could supply safe or safer water to the folks around me. This is an item that is not just for travelers. Even folks who do not travel should, in my opinion, have a way to make their water drinkable if the just-in-case scenero hits.