Up-Country

Hi everybody,

Cindy wanted me to let you know she left for up-country and will be back in a few weeks. Hopefully she will be back with good news of two wells installed and many latrines!

Keep her and the mission in your prayers.

-Bekki

And....We're Off!

Not off to the races, and not off our rockers, but off to the bush! Pastor Chris left yesterday with the first of 5 loads of materials and tools for 2 wells in the Kuwaa region. The good people at Lutheran World Federation loaned us their truck for a few weeks. Yes, it will take a few weeks. The road is so bad! You may already be tired of hearing about it. Chris should have arrived with the load last night in Fassama. I won't know anything until he gets back, as there is no cell contact up there. They plan to unload the truck today and rest. Then, tomorrow, they'll head back to Monrovia. We will load the truck on Thursday, and they'll be off again on Friday. This routine will continue (hopefully) until we have all 5 loads up. We expect to have it done by the end of the month. We are storing the materials in an old Connex container in Fassama. There is a lot of old equipment that was left by the logging industry many years ago. We are glad to have the container to store things in. Otherwise, it would be difficult to keep it from being stolen. We asked to have announcements made on the radio to tell the villagers when to arrive to pick up the materials. As I said, there is no cell phone coverage. We don't pick up the radio station here, so I hope that goes well. They should arrive to start carrying loads after the second load from Monrovia is delivered. The well technician will go up on the second trip and walk in to the village with the villagers. There are 25 sacks of cement, well pump, pipe, pump rods, and misc. tools to carry. We will split the sacks of cement in two, bag it in plastic and then rice bags. They have to carry it on their head for about 10 hrs, so 50 pounds is plenty. 100 pounds would be too much. There are 2 villages getting wells. The second village should send people on Feb. 24 to pick up their materials. Pastor Chris will go back and forth with the pickup each time and will be in Fassama to distribute materials. I will go to the first village (Gbeliyankei) next week - Feb. 16. The well technican and I will get that well started. They dig it by hand to about 40 or 50 ft, hauling dirt out with a bucket on a rope. During the dry season (which we are in, right now), the ground is very dry and the hole shouldn't cave in. They dig foot holds into the sides of the hole, to climb up and down. While the hole is being dug, we will cast concrete culverts in 2 ft sections. The hole will be cased with the culverts, which are only a few inches smaller than the hole. We have a pulley to lower the culverts into the well. You should see photos of this when I come back!
We also hope to be able to do repair work on some of the wells in other villages that are not operating. We are bringing a few spare parts. We found about 8 wells that are not working. We will try to educate someone in the village to be able to take care of the well, and I'm preparing log books for them to record the well depth, pump setting depth, work performed, etc.
I also plan to do some education about sanitation. We will have toilets!!! As a card-carrying member of the World Toilet Organization, I will see to it!
I ask for your prayers for the success of the project. It is amazing to think of the difference that we can make in these people's lives! There are about 500 people in each village that will have access to clean water, where all they had before was a muddy stream. It is truly a priviledge for me to be here. I thank you all for your support of the Mission.