The Chosen — Africa Mission, Day 1, 2026-01-17 (Patreon)

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Clean Water is a worldwide problem. Here are some agencies working on it:

UNICEF — https://www.unicef.orgUSAID — https://www.usaid.govWaterAid — https://www.wateraid.orgWorld Bank — https://www.worldbank.org

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Chapter 41: ON THE GROUND by Paul Charm

Once again, on a Pay It Forward Society mission, I find myself in the familiar position of knowing just enough to be useful, and not nearly enough to be comfortable. This time, at least, I’m not the only one.

We landed in Africa as planned—very deliberately not saying exactly where, as though we were running some clandestine intelligence operation—then received our only instruction:

Go to baggage claim. Wait for the ground team.

Full stop. No contact name. No photo. No timeline. Nothing.

So there we were—fifteen of us gathered around luggage and equipment like slightly overdressed tourists pretending we weren’t.

Then they appeared.

Six African men in black boots, black cargo trousers, and fitted black shirts moved through the terminal straight toward us. Professional. Controlled. Not rushed—just direct. One carried a sign with printed letters:

PAY IT FORWARD

I lifted a hand. “I believe that’s us.”

One stepped forward as the others spread out—not dramatic. Just positioned.

“Paul Charm?” he asked.

I nodded.

He turned to Rebecca. “Ms. Flint?”

“Yes.”

“I’m Kofi Mensah. Ground team lead. We’ll be escorting you to the community.”

He paused, then added, “I’m glad we found you. Our instructions were… not detailed.”

I smiled at Rebecca. “Same on our end.”

Outside, three Toyota Troopies waited in the heat. Once we’d loaded up and taken our seats, Kofi turned slightly so I could hear him.

“Our team will provide security, translation, and liaison support,” he said. “We’ll coordinate with leaders while you install the filtration systems and train users.”

Then he exhaled.

“The payment was generous,” he admitted. “So generous I worried it might be a hoax.”

He glanced forward. “I was relieved when I saw you in baggage claim.”

I gave a low laugh. “That’s fair.”

Kofi nodded once, then, like it was the simplest thing in the world he added, “We will keep you safe.”

And just like that, the mission felt real.

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Chapter 42: ALL ABOUT WATER by Emma Knox

By now, you probably have seen at least one of us talking about this mission. The whole point is to help everyone understand that not everybody in the world has access to clean water.

If you grew up like I did—turning on a faucet without thinking—you might not realize how rare that actually is.

Around the world, billions of people still don’t have safely managed drinking water at home. And for hundreds of millions, the only option is a long walk to a pump, a well, or a stream.

Every single day. In heat. In dust. Sometimes with toddlers on their hip and a container in each hand. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s normal life for a huge part of the planet.

That’s why we’re here.

In communities like this one, water comes in two main forms.

The first is a borehole hand pump—like the one beside me. Someone drilled down far enough to reach groundwater, and this pump draws it up. It’s simple. Brilliant, really. It’s also a lifeline because it provides access without electricity or plumbing.

The second is free-running surface water—streams, rivers, seasonal runoff. And if you’ve ever seen a beautiful stream and thought, That looks clean… I get it. Our brains associate clear water with safe water.

But here’s the problem:

Having water is not the same as having safe-to-drink water.

Water can look clean and still be dangerous. It can carry bacteria, viruses, parasites, and contaminants that cause chronic sickness—especially in children. Some of it becomes so normal that it doesn’t even get treated as an emergency anymore.

That’s why filtration matters.

We’re helping install filtration systems that make water safer to drink—because clean water is health. It’s school attendance. It’s energy. It’s dignity.

This is only the beginning. The others will share more about what we’re building, how it works, and what it means for the people here.

But for now, I want you to remember one thing:

If you have clean water from a tap, you are lucky. And I don’t think any of us should forget that again.

Chapter 43: TWO WATER PROBLEMS by Will Robertson

When most Americans think about water, they think about one thing: turning on a tap.

As a civil engineer, I can tell you that water problems usually come in two very different forms.

The first problem is simply having water at all.

Not bottled water. Not filtered water. Just water—enough of it to irrigate crops, wash clothes, clean dishes, water animals, or keep a family functioning. In a lot of places, water isn’t something you assume is nearby. It’s something you plan your entire day around. It dictates how much food can be grown, how far people must walk, and how much energy is spent just maintaining daily life.

You can see it here. This channel isn’t decorative. This is what makes farming possible. This is the difference between harvest and hunger.

But then there’s the second problem—the one most people don’t realize exists until they see it up close.

Having water is not the same as having safe-to-drink water.

A community can have a borehole pump, a canal, or a free-running stream and still have people getting sick. Water can look clean and still carry bacteria, viruses, parasites, and contaminants that slowly wear down the health of an entire village. When that becomes normal, it stops being treated like a crisis. It becomes background noise.

That’s why this mission matters.

We’re not just trying to help people get water. We’re trying to help them get water that won’t hurt them.

In engineering terms, this is the difference between supply and safety. Quantity and quality. Access and health.

In human terms, it’s the difference between surviving…and being able to thrive.

More details are coming from the team as we install the filtration systems and train the community. But I wanted you to understand the big picture first:

There are two water problems in the world. And both of them change everything.

Chapter 44: FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS by Kent Marlon

When we got here, there was a box truck waiting for us. Kofi said the ground team picked it up and brought it here.

We cracked it open to find crates in which are the solar powered filtering systems. If I have to be honest about it, moving them into place was the hardest part. Merritt and me unboxed one and pretty much figured out how to put it together without the instructions.

Naturally, we looked at the instructions to confirm our guesses. The mission is to install four of these in two communities that are nearby each other.

It looks complicated, but it’s really two systems working together: power and water.

Up top, that solar panel makes electricity. It feeds a controller inside the box—the brains of the system. That controller regulates voltage, charges the battery, and runs protection like fuses and breakers so nothing gets smoked if something spikes or shorts. Daylight in, stable power out.

That power runs the pump. No grid needed. No generator. No fuel runs. Just sun.

Now the water side: the pump pulls water from whatever source the community has—borehole, tank, stream intake—and pushes it through the filter housings in stages.

Those blue canisters are like checkpoints. The first stages catch sediment—sand, grit, rust, whatever’s floating around. Then finer filtration pulls out smaller particles. Depending on the system, the final stage handles the dangerous stuff—microbes and contaminants—so the water’s safe to drink.

Bottom line? This turns “water we can access” into “water we can trust,” and it does it with sunlight and smart wiring.

And here’s what matters most: once the system is installed, the community doesn’t need outside help every week to keep it running. It’s simple, repairable, and built for real life—not a lab. If it breaks, we teach them how to fix it. That’s the whole point—local control, long-term safety, and water people can drink without fear.

Chapter 45: MORE THAN WATER by Noah Vale

I know I’m here to help with the water filter installation, and in no way do I want to diminish the importance of that. But access to clean water is not the only issue faced by people in many parts of the world. Another problem is limited access to medical treatment.

|| Read this and more on Patreon (link in bio). ||

In the US, it’s hard to drive down any main road without passing health facilities. Walk-in urgent care centers are everywhere. Pharmacies can fill prescriptions the same day. Even when our system is frustrating or expensive, the infrastructure is still there.

That is not the case in a lot of the world.

In many communities, getting medical care isn’t a quick stop. It can mean traveling miles—sometimes on foot—just to reach a clinic. And once you get there, treatment isn’t guaranteed. Staffing can be limited. Supplies can be scarce. Transportation can be unreliable. The barrier isn’t just money. It’s distance and time.

Today it wasn’t a crisis. It was something ordinary—and that’s exactly the point.

A man here has a bad cut on his arm. Back home, he’d go to a clinic, and it would get treated in minutes. Here, ignoring it could mean infection. Infection could mean complications. And complications can become life-threatening faster than most people realize.

So I cleaned the wound, used antibacterial ointment and wound closure strips from my kit—simple supplies, but enough to reduce risk and give his body a fair chance to heal.

He still needs to watch it. If it swells, reddens, heats up, or starts to drain, he may need that trip for care. I’m hoping he won’t.

Being here reminds me that global health isn’t only about hospitals. It’s about whether help is reachable when it matters.

The clean water mission is vital. But it’s connected to this. Because safe water reduces disease and lowers infection risk. It keeps small wounds from becoming big ones.

If you have medical care within reach, don’t take it for granted. Not for a second.

Be your best you!

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