Here's the Lastest Report from the Field as Our Water Rehabilitation Ministry Gets Underway for 2010...
Nawile is a small village off the main road from Dano in a remote place where more than 700 people live. They are all cultivators of the earth, surviving daily by growing their own food. This year the food situation is difficult due to a less than normal rainfall. Common illnesses are diarrhea, malaria, and stomach problems. There are only two deep wells (both of which are broken) and only two open hand dug wells (which has limited water) to serve this entire community. Unable to find adequate water, people resort to gathering water from the low creek beds knowing that the water will make them sick. It’s sad to see people gathering water from the same place that animals drink and urinate.
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When this source of water dries up by the end of January, the women are forced to travel to the next dry creek bed in a neighboring village 9 kilometers away! Early in the morning, around 6am, the women travel with their water containers 9 km to gather water. After a rest from the searing sun and heat, they start back with the water on their heads another 9 km returning to their homes at 4pm. A 10 hour trip to get water that we wouldn’t put in our toilets! In our pre-rehab interview with village leaders we also learn that there is an outbreak of pink eye that is affecting 319 children and adults in the village. Without sufficient money and access to medicines this epidemic has been going on for months on end. How humbling and sad it is to learn of their plight, and yet how exciting it is to be used by God to bring about the restoration of an old broken well.
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On January 12th, 2010 people started arriving at the well in expectation of those who were coming to repair the well in the middle of the village which had been broken for a couple of years. When we arrived there were close to 200 people waiting for us (nothing like a little crowd pressure on our first rehab). Members of the church in Nawile were gathered under a nearby tree singing songs of praise in their native tongue to the beat of drums. They had carried water and dolo (a local drink from millet grain) and peanuts for those who had come, some from villages 20 km away. It was quite a scene. Matt Durkee, field administrator, with Friends In Action International from Ouagadougou had come to help me and to provide services for which I didn’t have the equipment such as cleaning out the well and taking deep water samples. What we thought was going to be a simple quick rehab turned into an all day job!
+365.JPG)
After greeting village leaders and praying together for God’s blessing that we could get this well fixed, we began pulling out the old Diafa pump a little after 9am. Church leaders from various villages had arrived and we quickly put them to work learning the various jobs needed to do the repair. So, we were repairing the well as well as doing on the job training. Somewhere around 11:30am the old rusty pipes were out of the hole. It wasn’t hard to see the problem; several tubes had holes pierced in them from rust, and the foot valve was clogged up with all the rust chunks.
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Matt then measured the water level and well depth which turned out to be very encouraging. There was a lot of water down there. The static water level was at 12 meters and the well depth was 36 meters. After inserting a submersible pump powered by a generator, we were pumping water out of the well at better than 1 liter/second. To our surprise the water recharge rate was great; after an initial draw down, and pumping for an entire hour, the water level only went down 12 cm! Matt roughly calculated a water volume production rate of 5 cubic meters per hour. Praise the Lord! It sure was a good feeling to know there was water in the hole, and plenty of it before installing all the new materials.
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After a short break we were back at the well head installing the new stainless steel piston and pipes for the India Mark II pump. It took a little while for everyone to get the hang of using horse hair and joint material instead of Teflon but soon the pipes were coming and we had a good system down. We ended up only installing 10 tubes for a working depth of 30 meters trying to remember that the worst of the dry season is coming. When we got to the last pipe and were ready to put on the head, the pump rod was too long. No problem; just cut the rod and rethread it, right? Nope, stainless steel is very tough and we couldn’t get the threader tool started. Now, we didn’t know what to do. Replace the last rod and try again?
+031.JPG)
We called one of our contacts who said we needed to pull the entire system and tighten the stainless pump rods all the way on the threads to reduce the length above. So, a little reluctantly, we started pulling the entire well again, unloosing the pipe and tightening the pump rods more fully, reapplying the horse hair and connecting. However, when we finally finished with that proposition we still had the same problem! The pump rod was too long! Another call revealed that the pipe man had forgotten to give me a special piece to account for the difference in length. Now, we were faced at possibly not being able to complete the well due to a lack of materials, this after having installed the well “twice”. My heart sank at the thought of all these people who had come to see the well repaired, the church who had sung out their hearts all day in anticipation, and all our volunteers who worked hard in the hot sun all day.
Like we had done many times already, we stopped to pray and ask for God’s blessing and direction. Despite my feelings of desperation, God was still at work inspiring one of our volunteers with another solution. The solution was to use a pump rod that still had the threads on it, which made it possible to start the threading tool and thread the rod all the way down to the correct height. So after that arduous process, we were back on track and ready to mount the pump head.
+272.JPG)
The villagers, sensing our optimism and progress, began singing louder than before and crying out shouts to God. As the sun was sinking below the horizon of the African plain, a church leader from Nawile pumped the well for the very first time bringing out an abundant amount of water. Everyone broke out in praise, including me with shouts of hallelujah, that God had prevailed and enabled us to repair the well. Water was flowing again! Clean, fresh water! It was a joyous moment that will forever be remembered in my mind.
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A great team effort, perseverance despite difficulty, and an eager willingness to serve brought forth a truly successful 1st rehab! Hallelujah! The villagers presented us with a special gift of a chicken, a guinea fowl, and a huge bowl of peanuts. It is always so humbling to receive gifts like this knowing they have so very little protein to eat themselves and we have so much. We prayed and sang in Dagara for another 30 minutes and took pictures until it got too dark to see. Night had fallen, but not without God bringing water and hope to an entire village!
+043.JPG)
Some things I learned along the way:
* Some tools work well, and some don’t…I need better pipe wrenches, a good pair of vice grips to keep the stainless rod from turning, and I had trouble with the heavy clamp, at times the pipe slipped too much or I egged it by squeezing it too hard.
* A galvanized installation does not have the same instructions as a stainless installation.
* There is always more than one solution to a problem…there is great creativity and resourcefulness on the part of our African brothers.
* It doesn’t hurt to stop and take a water/dolo break and rest a moment…Africans are more forgiving and patient than I was willing to be with myself.
* I should have double checked the materials list before leaving the pipe guy in Ouagadougou…now I know exactly what specific parts I need.
* God is Faithful and Powerful…when we can’t find a solution, He can and does. We prayed to fix the well that day; we just didn’t know that God was going to allow us to do it all day long!
Some things I thought went well with the project:
* Effective on the job training of Dagara leaders for well rehab.
* Modeled prayer and dependence on God…whenever we came to a point where we weren’t making progress whether it was a rusty pipe that wouldn’t turn loose or not having the right materials, we prayed.
* Good preparations and interviews with village leaders…which also revealed a significant health crisis.
* Collaboration with in-country NGO partners for assistance and learning.
* Great local church involvement and follow-up.
The next day I traveled out to Nawile to observe how things were going with the new pump. When I arrived at the village center, I was greeted by smiling faces offering calabashes of clean water! At the well, there were about 10 women gathering water and washing clothes. It was so awesome to see those 40 liter bowls of sparkling clear water! The pump quickly filled up the containers, and when you stopped pumping, it only took two strokes to get the water flowing again.
+412.JPG)
Everyone in the village is so happy and grateful to have clean water available again. A great burden has been lifted from the backs of women and children, overall physical health will improve, and families will have more time to devote to other survival and educational needs. I can’t wait to go back to Nawile on Sunday morning for a special worship gathering at the well to celebrate what God has done in their lives and present the word of Christ, the Living Water! I want to thank everyone who had a part in this well, especially the Bell Family Foundation who sponsored this project! Thank you all for your prayers! May God be glorified!
Working Together For Those Who Thirst For Something More,
Geoffrey Richter and Family
Isaiah 41:17-20
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+302.JPG)
When this source of water dries up by the end of January, the women are forced to travel to the next dry creek bed in a neighboring village 9 kilometers away! Early in the morning, around 6am, the women travel with their water containers 9 km to gather water. After a rest from the searing sun and heat, they start back with the water on their heads another 9 km returning to their homes at 4pm. A 10 hour trip to get water that we wouldn’t put in our toilets! In our pre-rehab interview with village leaders we also learn that there is an outbreak of pink eye that is affecting 319 children and adults in the village. Without sufficient money and access to medicines this epidemic has been going on for months on end. How humbling and sad it is to learn of their plight, and yet how exciting it is to be used by God to bring about the restoration of an old broken well.
+185.JPG)
On January 12th, 2010 people started arriving at the well in expectation of those who were coming to repair the well in the middle of the village which had been broken for a couple of years. When we arrived there were close to 200 people waiting for us (nothing like a little crowd pressure on our first rehab). Members of the church in Nawile were gathered under a nearby tree singing songs of praise in their native tongue to the beat of drums. They had carried water and dolo (a local drink from millet grain) and peanuts for those who had come, some from villages 20 km away. It was quite a scene. Matt Durkee, field administrator, with Friends In Action International from Ouagadougou had come to help me and to provide services for which I didn’t have the equipment such as cleaning out the well and taking deep water samples. What we thought was going to be a simple quick rehab turned into an all day job!
+365.JPG)
After greeting village leaders and praying together for God’s blessing that we could get this well fixed, we began pulling out the old Diafa pump a little after 9am. Church leaders from various villages had arrived and we quickly put them to work learning the various jobs needed to do the repair. So, we were repairing the well as well as doing on the job training. Somewhere around 11:30am the old rusty pipes were out of the hole. It wasn’t hard to see the problem; several tubes had holes pierced in them from rust, and the foot valve was clogged up with all the rust chunks.
+357.JPG)
Matt then measured the water level and well depth which turned out to be very encouraging. There was a lot of water down there. The static water level was at 12 meters and the well depth was 36 meters. After inserting a submersible pump powered by a generator, we were pumping water out of the well at better than 1 liter/second. To our surprise the water recharge rate was great; after an initial draw down, and pumping for an entire hour, the water level only went down 12 cm! Matt roughly calculated a water volume production rate of 5 cubic meters per hour. Praise the Lord! It sure was a good feeling to know there was water in the hole, and plenty of it before installing all the new materials.
+299.JPG)
After a short break we were back at the well head installing the new stainless steel piston and pipes for the India Mark II pump. It took a little while for everyone to get the hang of using horse hair and joint material instead of Teflon but soon the pipes were coming and we had a good system down. We ended up only installing 10 tubes for a working depth of 30 meters trying to remember that the worst of the dry season is coming. When we got to the last pipe and were ready to put on the head, the pump rod was too long. No problem; just cut the rod and rethread it, right? Nope, stainless steel is very tough and we couldn’t get the threader tool started. Now, we didn’t know what to do. Replace the last rod and try again?
+031.JPG)
We called one of our contacts who said we needed to pull the entire system and tighten the stainless pump rods all the way on the threads to reduce the length above. So, a little reluctantly, we started pulling the entire well again, unloosing the pipe and tightening the pump rods more fully, reapplying the horse hair and connecting. However, when we finally finished with that proposition we still had the same problem! The pump rod was too long! Another call revealed that the pipe man had forgotten to give me a special piece to account for the difference in length. Now, we were faced at possibly not being able to complete the well due to a lack of materials, this after having installed the well “twice”. My heart sank at the thought of all these people who had come to see the well repaired, the church who had sung out their hearts all day in anticipation, and all our volunteers who worked hard in the hot sun all day.
Like we had done many times already, we stopped to pray and ask for God’s blessing and direction. Despite my feelings of desperation, God was still at work inspiring one of our volunteers with another solution. The solution was to use a pump rod that still had the threads on it, which made it possible to start the threading tool and thread the rod all the way down to the correct height. So after that arduous process, we were back on track and ready to mount the pump head.
+272.JPG)
The villagers, sensing our optimism and progress, began singing louder than before and crying out shouts to God. As the sun was sinking below the horizon of the African plain, a church leader from Nawile pumped the well for the very first time bringing out an abundant amount of water. Everyone broke out in praise, including me with shouts of hallelujah, that God had prevailed and enabled us to repair the well. Water was flowing again! Clean, fresh water! It was a joyous moment that will forever be remembered in my mind.
+072.JPG)
A great team effort, perseverance despite difficulty, and an eager willingness to serve brought forth a truly successful 1st rehab! Hallelujah! The villagers presented us with a special gift of a chicken, a guinea fowl, and a huge bowl of peanuts. It is always so humbling to receive gifts like this knowing they have so very little protein to eat themselves and we have so much. We prayed and sang in Dagara for another 30 minutes and took pictures until it got too dark to see. Night had fallen, but not without God bringing water and hope to an entire village!
+043.JPG)
Some things I learned along the way:
* Some tools work well, and some don’t…I need better pipe wrenches, a good pair of vice grips to keep the stainless rod from turning, and I had trouble with the heavy clamp, at times the pipe slipped too much or I egged it by squeezing it too hard.
* A galvanized installation does not have the same instructions as a stainless installation.
* There is always more than one solution to a problem…there is great creativity and resourcefulness on the part of our African brothers.
* It doesn’t hurt to stop and take a water/dolo break and rest a moment…Africans are more forgiving and patient than I was willing to be with myself.
* I should have double checked the materials list before leaving the pipe guy in Ouagadougou…now I know exactly what specific parts I need.
* God is Faithful and Powerful…when we can’t find a solution, He can and does. We prayed to fix the well that day; we just didn’t know that God was going to allow us to do it all day long!
Some things I thought went well with the project:
* Effective on the job training of Dagara leaders for well rehab.
* Modeled prayer and dependence on God…whenever we came to a point where we weren’t making progress whether it was a rusty pipe that wouldn’t turn loose or not having the right materials, we prayed.
* Good preparations and interviews with village leaders…which also revealed a significant health crisis.
* Collaboration with in-country NGO partners for assistance and learning.
* Great local church involvement and follow-up.
The next day I traveled out to Nawile to observe how things were going with the new pump. When I arrived at the village center, I was greeted by smiling faces offering calabashes of clean water! At the well, there were about 10 women gathering water and washing clothes. It was so awesome to see those 40 liter bowls of sparkling clear water! The pump quickly filled up the containers, and when you stopped pumping, it only took two strokes to get the water flowing again.
+412.JPG)
Everyone in the village is so happy and grateful to have clean water available again. A great burden has been lifted from the backs of women and children, overall physical health will improve, and families will have more time to devote to other survival and educational needs. I can’t wait to go back to Nawile on Sunday morning for a special worship gathering at the well to celebrate what God has done in their lives and present the word of Christ, the Living Water! I want to thank everyone who had a part in this well, especially the Bell Family Foundation who sponsored this project! Thank you all for your prayers! May God be glorified!
Working Together For Those Who Thirst For Something More,
Geoffrey Richter and Family
Isaiah 41:17-20
