Can you tell me about the relationship between PlayPumps International and Revolution? Revolution is the company that was founded by Steve Case, the former owner of AOL?
FIELD: Well, Revolution is Steve’s company, and PlayPump International is the initiative of the Case Foundation, that is of Steve and Judy Case. They’re a married couple. They started the Case Foundation and they have pioneered and promoted the PlayPump system. You may have seen that PlayPump system was endorsed by First Lady Laura Bush, and Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative Conference in New York in September 2006. That was an official announcement of the American Government getting involved. And I know that that was motivated by Steve and Jean, and also us. We did some presentations, too. Even I did when I was in Washington.

Is it an ongoing, working relationship? And is Steve Case personally involved?
FIELD: Steve is involved personally. Not as much as Jean, his wife is. Jean is the chairperson of the PlayPumps, International, as far as I’m aware. And Jean is very much involved in the functionality and the day to day running of the initiative. Steve is involved as well because he’s fully up to speed with what’s going on. I was with them two weeks ago at their residence in Manhattan Avenue in DC, where they hosted a cocktail party with 200 people, which included seven ambassadors and all sorts of different people. And they were unbelievably supportive and verbal about the PlayPumps initiative and their intention to continue supporting it.

Okay. Can you tell me about the partnership with the Africa group of the Coca-Cola Company? Alexander Cummings is the president and the Chief Operating Officer, I believe. Can you tell me about that partnership with PlayPumps?
FIELD: Yes. Well, we continue to have work with them. We have had a relationship with the Coca-Cola Company here in South Africa and with the head officer, for that matter. I personally hadn’t met Alex Cummings prior to a meeting a few weeks ago in DC. But I have spoken to him since then, and I’ve sent him a couple of emails. And he sent one back to me to say, you know, we want to work together with you. Let’s get your executive documents and you’re initiative briefing document, and outline your work that you’re currently doing, and then we’ll get back together. So we are intending to work with them.

If you walk down the street in South Africa, everybody says hello to you, even if you’re a complete stranger.

What strikes you the most about South Africa?
FIELD: Ah, it’s just a beautiful place. It’s got the best weather in the world. It’s got the best atmosphere because it’s 6,000 feet up in the air – It’s clean and fresh. We got the most fantastic people. We’ve got the prettiest girls, the coldest beer, and the best steaks. What else do you want to know?

[Laughing] That’s quite a lot to be envious of. Do you have residence there, at this point?
FIELD: Yes. I’m a permanent resident of South Africa. I’ve been here since 1975. I came here as a technician from the UK to install TV microwave links. There wasn’t any television in South Africa in those days. And I was trained in the UK for the telephone department there. And we came here as young guys to put in the microwave links. And once you’ve seen Cape Town, once you’ve been on the beach in Durban, you don’t want to go anywhere else.

If you walk down the street in South Africa, everybody says hello to you, even if you’re a complete stranger. Everybody says hello, smiles, greets you, tips their hat, and says, “Good morning How you doing?” That kind of thing. You know, I lived in London and I rode on the tube train. And nobody would make eye contact with you, let alone speak to you.

Well, we’ve really only got two problems in South Africa. One is AIDS, which is a massive problem. And the medical distribution of antiretroviral drugs is not so much of a problem, the distribution of it, it’s the actual administering of the stuff.

And then there’s the crime in New York and in many of the big cities in the States. You know get into a lift, and everybody looks at the digital counter that’s telling you which floor you’re on, and nobody says good morning or anything. In South Africa, everybody speaks to you. I mean, to give you a clue, when my daughter was in high school, I used to go and watch her play hockey. And you walked through the school. They’ve got 1100 children, and every child, by and large, everyone said, “Good morning, Sir.” Thank you. Every one. When you say good morning to 350 kids when you walk through it becomes a bit too much; you know what I mean?

Yes. Very touching.
FIELD: Yes. It’s very, very warm. Very different.

Recently, on World Water Day, Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki-moon released a statement discussing the depth of the problem with sanitation and safe drinking water. Do you have a relationship with the UN? Have you met the Secretary-General?
FIELD: I haven’t met the Secretary-General. I would love to. There’s a lot of people I’d like to meet to tell them about what we do, and he’s one of them. We have worked with some of the United Nations departments. In particular, UNICEF, we’ve worked with in the past. We worked with UNICEF and a couple of others, but not in any good likeness in-depth as I’d like to.