We started our day at 6:30 this morning with a devo. Then, following breakfast, we headed out to the village at 8:00. We arrived and had to be reminded about Nicaragua time. We were ready to storm in with guns a blazin'! But, Nicaragua time dictated that we chill and wait a little bit. Eventually, after some waiting, some visiting, some more waiting...we got started. I am part of the Hygiene Team - so I had very limited access to our drill team and would not presume to give you their impressions. Today, Kent Grubb has graciously offered to give a drillers perspective - which I will include later.
This morning, Adrian read from a book that I wish I could quote, but Jorge has the book, and Adrian is gone, so I can't even tell you the name. But the author takes you on a short journey, beginning at the start of your day. You get up, brush your teeth, use the restroom, make some coffee, perhaps prepare breakfast for your family, shower, and get ready to go to your job. Now, that is a lot to accomplish before 8 o'clock in the morning. Now, add to that walking about a mile or so to get all of the water that you need for all of those things. They say that the average family uses about 300 gallons a day. Lets get very conservative here and say that you only need 10% of that to accomplish your morning tasks. That is 30 gallons, or 240 pounds of water. How long do you think that it would take you to walk to your water source, draw the water out of the water source, and then schlep it back to your house. Not sure about most people, but this girl cannot carry anywhere close to that. How many trips would it take? How many hours would it take. What time would I have to get up to accomplish all of that before I headed to my job? That is a really simplistic illustration, but it is these folks reality. And the harsher reality is that all that water they gather is contaminated with pesticides, bacteria, fecal matter...you get the picture. So hearing all of that, we left in the appropriate frame of mind. When we arrived, from the hygiene perspective, it was worse than we expected.
There is just no word but dirty. There is no grass. Everything that takes place takes place in the dirt. The children basically leave their homes and wander around the area, in the dirt. Some have shoes, some don't. But think about how dirty a child would be that played outside all day, NEVER washing their hands or faces. Got that picture? Ok, now add a runny nose to it. And a scraped knee with the scab coming off. Now, the part that you have been waiting for, add the lice. And I am not talking a kid with an itchy scalp that we suspected might possibly have them. I am talking a kid with COLONIES of lice in their hair. I am not exagerating when I tell you that one little two year old (that spent all day wandering around unattended with the exception of her three year old sister) got down on her hands and knees and rubbed the top of her head back and forth across the dirt because it itched so bad.
The first thing we did was walk around to the different families and invite the mothers and children to attend our hygiene classes. Each home illustrated over and over the poverty that these people live in. The nicest ones were cinder block. No doors, no windows, no indoor toilet, no inside sink. The peole who I kinda pegged as the 'wealthy' family, had a bed frame - but no matress, just a board and some blankets. The not so wealthy families' homes consisted of a few pieces of corrugated tin leaning against each other. Then we encounter the latrines. They are outhouses. The nicest ones have a cement floor. The walls are sugar cane canes, and the roofs are tin. They were kind enought to let us use the really nice one. Of course, some of the little boys just walk over and pee where they feel like it. And there were babies running around naked, or if they had underpants on, it was really only to cover their hineys, and once they do their business, it becomes part of the walking trail. So, is it any wonder that their water source is contaminated?? I must tell you that the latrines were a major source of conversation among we hygiene types. We REALLY did not want to go there - literally. We plotted and planned and tried to figure out how we could avoid it. On the way to the site, as the anxiety level rose, I suggested that maybe we should all head straight toward the latrines when we arrived at the village and just get it over with rather than dreading it (and holding it). Nobody jumped on that bandwagon. You willl be happy to know that we lived through the experience. Not saying I am looking forward to it for tomorrow, but I did live to tell about it.
After we did our community walk, we went back to an open area to start our classes. We were expecting to be teaching the adults - only one showed up. But we had 19 kids, so we decided to do kid lessons. GREAT decision. The rest of the day was fabulous. These kids were SO entertained by us silly Americans. What I found amazing was how well behaved they were. They sat and listened - and I am talking about little bitty kids here, and their mothers were nowhere in sight. No authority figures whatsoever! As a former helicopter parent, it makes me really stop and think if all that hovering I did was really necessary. So far these kids here are turning out just fine.
We taught our lessons, colored pictures, blew bubbles, did the limbo, sang songs, and we taught them a game. A childhood favorite in the U.S., they had never played Duck, Duck, Goose! So, we decided to teach them. We ran into a little snag when we discovered that none of us knew how to say 'goose' in Spanish. So instead, we played Duck, Duck, Chicken! It was riot. Pato, Pato, Pollo! was a huge hit among these Nicaraguan children. I can see it catching on all over the country!
It was really amazing to watch the hearts of my other hygiene members today. I have to say that I am really really enjoying then all. I have known Theresa Turner for a very long time, but Lauren Gibbins and Kristen Zimmer only a little while. They are all stellar individuals. Theresa is the only one of us who is fluent in Spanish, and having just that part of her has been awesome. But if you have never seen her in action with children, you have really missed out. She is so very gifted. And the children know, regardless of what language they speak, that she is one of the good guys, and that she truly loves them. Lauren Gibbins too is very gifted with children. They bring out a whole different person in her. There is a special smile and a look that she gets in her eye when she talks to these kids, that I have never seen with an adult (and really awesome dimples). Kristen Zimmer is the one that I knew the least of the three before coming on the trip and I have had so much fun getting to know her better. She is a KIND person, who loves children. She works very hard at everything she does. And she is FUNNY! So much fun to be around.
The whole team has been fun to be around. There is SO much laughter, and anyone who knows me knows that, to borrow a phrase from my favorite Elf, "Laughing is my favorite". It is really really an amazing group of people. There is so much more I need to talk about, but I need to save it for another day. As previously promised, here is a segment from the drillers perspective.
Drilling began today a bit after 10:00. Our driller, Adrian, was delayed obtaining necessary items for drilling. We had a target time of 9:00 to start but the pause gave us the opportunity to walk back to the home where we had enjoyed the church gathering the day before. There we spoke briefly with the sister whose house it was, and she allowed us to use the latrine behind the house. She was doing laundry outside her house on a concrete sink and wash board.
At 10 Adrian began teaching us the rudiments of drilling a water well. The first stage is digging several small trenches leading to a pair of pits. Three men of the village church had dug the two five foot pits in an hour. We took some lengthier period to hack out our several shallow trenches of a half foot depth and several feet in length.
As some of us dug, Emily, Deanna, and Jim mixed Bentonite, a slick oatmeal-like substance - once it is mixed. They muscled 40 lbs sacks onto the lip of 55 gallon drums, then sifted the Bentonite powder slowly into the drums. At the same time time they shot water into the barrels from compressor powered pumps. Inevitably, the slurry erupted at moments, splattering the three of them. Undeterred, they finished up three 55 gallon drums. The Bentonite is critical for mud drilling as it lifts the cuttings to the surface.
We then dumped the Bentonite into the pits and began drilling. This is fairly physical labor, requiring lifting 5ft sections of pipe to be joined to the drillhead as the drill works further into the ground.
Adrian taught each member of the drill crew how to operate the drill. Some were naturals, others felt a conviction for other callings.
We are just inside the Pacific coastal area of Nicaragua. Jorge, the local Living Water director, warned us that the sun would be quite draining. We were very blessed today to have nice cloud cover as well as a very pleasant breeze.
At lunch, we had a sandwich, some chips, and Gatorade. Several pigs trotted by, with an eye toward anything that might have been dropped. Several showed mild irritation earlier in the day in their wallows along the road threading through the middle of the pueblo.
When the drill bit stalled about an hour after lunch, Adrian had us pull all 115ft of pipe from the hole. This requires breaking the grip of the threads on the successive lengths of pipe with a three foot pipe wrench. Each section must be reloaded into the trailer so it is ready to be reused. Once the entire pipe length was out, Adrian attached a new bit, while Jorge cleared the bit. As each length came off, water shot from the joint in the pipe saturating the three or four drill crew working to break loose the pipe.
At the end of the day, the hole was 115 ft. Adrian tells us we will likely have good water at 160.
Thanks Kent, I really appreciate it. Unfortunately, my pictures won't post. I will look for another option for posting pictures at another time. However, our tech guru Dan has posted a sample video to You Tube. Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd5LSNUyLBI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
In the meantime, please continue praying for us. As for me:
May my steps be worship, may my thoughts be praise, may my words bring honor to Your name.
Karen, we are praying for the whole team. Sounds like God is moving! Keep it up!
ReplyDelete~Stacia