Hot tamale! We had been lulled in to a false sense of security. We were sweaty before our feet even hit the ground. I cannot even imagine how the poor drillers felt. But you will get a chance later to hear later from our guest blogger Deanna Mesa.
We had another uncomfortable moment regarding our role here. The deal is that the moms are supposed to come in the mornings and hear the lessons, and the children come in the afternoon. Well, on Monday, the moms didn't come. Much to our amazement, the in-country staff told the preacher that if the moms didn't come to class on Tuesday, we would stop drilling. That was really hard cheese to swallow. Yes, we get it. There needs to be buy in, there needs to be accountability...but seriously...our group has discussed this time and time again. We have NEVER seen nor could we ever have imagined conditions like our village folks live in. The NEED this well. They need their children to be healthy so that they can go to school and start to break the cycle of poverty. A lot of the women that we have witnessed work very hard and they have so little. Yesterday a truck came through the village buying big bags of peanuts. Cool, we thought - they have a source of income. Actually, what they have is an illegal source of income. What happens is the peanut farmers use machines to harvest. These village folks sneak into the fields and glean them of the peanuts they can find before the field owners send in their own pickers. This illegal. And can you imagine the backbreaking work of bending over and collection the left over peanuts into huge bags, than being paid $1.50 a day to do it? Illegally so that you can maybe have some food on your plate. And these folks are given this ultimatum. Take half your day off at your expense and listen to the rich well dressed Americans tell you what to do? I am sure they felt like they needed to put on their best clothes, make sure they were as clean as possible, make sure their hair was neat, force a smile, a smile which in some cases lacked several teeth, a smile which they really were not comfortable forcing... We found out that it was an empty threat, but the coercion factor still really bothered me. When we got there, again there was only one mom. But the preacher started going around and rounding some folks up, and we were able to begin class.
I really enjoyed my teaching time today. My subject matter was a little more adult, so I got to meet with the mothers only while the other team members played with the kids. My subject was (diarrhea), and the way to care for their children when it happens. It seems trivial to us, but to people who drink contaminated water, it is a life-threatening regular occurrence. We talked about an Oral Rehydration Solution that they can use. Many believe that when the kids get ill, that you should stop giving them water. We taught them differently. At the end, I asked for questions and was THRILLED when they actually asked questions! They asked great questions, and I felt like they really walked away with a good understanding of what I set out to teach.
Here is Deanna Mesa, with her drillers perspective:
Tuesday, day 2 of the drilling week.
I have learned a lot these past few days here in Nicaragua.
I struggle with things to say in this blog because I don't know how to put what I'm feeling into words. I have never really stopped to thank The Lord for safe, clean, running water. This morning was the very first day in my life to thank Jesus for the clean water I have. That is how I started my morning.
The drill team started working at 8am this morning. The bentonite was mixed, the mud started flowing, and we were off. We only had 45 more feet to drill to get to 160 feet. Everything seemed to be going smooth until a rock the size of an egg got caught underneath the frame of the screen (the screen keeps the bits of rocks from getting into the mud that is pushed into the drill). This caused the drilling to move a snails pace. We each had to take turns pulling rocks from the suction pump so the mud would flow. Sounds easy right, well its not. You would have to lay on your belly and stick your hands into a pit of mud to clean the screen constantly. From then on the word of the day was SUCTION! Over and over again. So there we were covered in dirty filth fighting with a pump as the sun beat down on us.
When lunch came around we had to take turns because we couldn't stop. So the wonderful hygiene team fixed our plates and we each took turns to eat lunch. We had tuna fish mixed with peppers and onions that was on top of white rice. Oh and some banana chips.
By the time we we're all done eating lunch we broke 160 feet. Hooray we did it. Well yes and no. You see after we hit the right depth we had to pull all the pipe out and start over with a larger bit. We started drilling again pipe after pipe with the popular word of the day SUCTION ringing in our ears. Finally at the end of the day we finished the days task. Once again we had to pull all the pipping out.
By then the other half of the Nicaragua team (aka the hygiene girls) came to the drill site and along with them came the kids. They are sweet to talk to and play with.
We got in the van and drove to our home for the week. There are a lot more things I would like to mention about the week but after 8 hours of hard labor I'm too tired to keep going. But I will say this.....The team that I am drilling with me have been so amazing. I am proud to know Rob, Kent, Dan, Josh, Randy, Emily and last but never least Jim. They are great family to have in Christ.
I will forever cherish this experience and am so blessed and thankful I am here.
I so appreciate Deanna taking the time to do this.
Since I have fallen asleep twice now while writing, I will sign off with another video from our friend Dan. Keep in mind that this is the ride home at the end of the day - and we had spent the whole day in the sun. Possibly not totally in our right minds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vs0gdIceXE&feature=youtube_gdata_player
May my steps be worship, may my thought be praise, may my words bring honor to Your Name
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