What in the world is a “graywater system”?–October 6th
A few days before I left for the West-Southwest leg of the WOC for Climate Justice Road Tour I received, with a mixture of bemusement and delight, through the Movement Generation for Change listserv, an emailed invitation from Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan to participate in a work day and dinner to develop a “graywater system” at her house. I was delighted because I was planning to be in the Bay area at the time of this event and was excited about seeing old MG friends as well as participating in a work day. I was bemused because I had no idea what a “graywater system” was, but I assumed it was some conservationist apparatus. That’s what it sounds like anyway!
Long story short I didn’t actually make it to the dinner/workday because I put the address into the BART (public transportation) address finder system and it dumped me off in the middle of Oakland but with no further directions. A call to Michelle and subsequent calls to everyone else from MG in my address book yielded nothing. So I dejectedly got back on the train and headed back to my hotel.
Anyway, after my visit to New Mexico and Arizona, I did make it to Berkeley to see Michelle who is originally from India, was raised in L.A. but has lived in the Bay Area for some time now. My time with her family was a joy as I saw how they were truly walking the talk. When I first met Michelle last year she did a riveting talk at a Movement Generation retreat on food and the cycle of production. To grossly oversimplify, her presentation centered on the importance of sourcing local produce.
True to her philosophy, Michelle’s garden was a veritable cornucopia of produce and even included chickens! When her husband served us lunch, which was sourced largely from their garden, I was entranced by the colors and the richness of the meal. Yum! Michelle also showed me the “graywater system” which, as it turns out, was a very simple system for using the waste water from the shower and from the sink to water the garden. Lovely!
Michelle also shared about her work with Movement Generation for Change on ecology justice.
I very much appreciated my time with the Mascarenhas-Swan family and left inspired, yet again, by the simple ways that people are living their lives for their own betterment and for greater the benefit of the earth and its inhabitants.
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