Past Few Days (20-23)

Today we made preparations for the installation of the manual pump. Despite the initial disappointment following the realization that we would be unable to see the solar pump at work during this trip, every one seems to have rallied. Everyone seems optimistic about bringing water back to the plaza, even if for now it will be pumped by hand. Another lesson for us about how to be grateful for what we have, how to have patience and take things one day at a time. Our plan for now is to return to the U.S with the pump, repair it and ship it back to Yua for the community to install it. Thankfully, this trip has been very successful in building a relationship between the community and a wide support network of technicians that they can call on for assistance when the need arises. Once we ship the pump back they should have no problem getting it up and running.

Today we had our first successful test of the drip irrigation system. We were able to get the tank running, despite a small leak which we hope to patch easily with epoxy. We set up the pipes, flushed them with water, replaced the end caps and “let her rip”. Actually, it wasn't so much a “rip” as a small trickle but that was great because that is what we were going for. We were working with a few farmers from the area who were eager to see how it was going to work. They have been very skeptical all week but I think once they saw it in action they are optimistic. The holes were the perfect size. The water seemed to be coming out at exactly the same rate as the ground could absorb it. We let it run and watched the size of the wet spots on the ground at each hole. The water covered a circle about 6 inches in diameter and maintained that size during the whole test. No run off, no time to evaporate, a success!

Kate

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The mechanical pump is on it's way, and so far the concrete base around the borehole for the pump has been set and the screws set in place. Otherwise the next big thing is that Henry had agreed to help with the installation of the old solar panels on the primary schools in Yua. We began today! The first installation had been done and shown to Patrick, one of the Yua workers, who will use the equipment and the business connections we have set him up with to continue the installation on hopefully two other schools. These solar panels will be used for lighting the schools, so the students will still have the opportunity to attend class at night (during the wet season, many students help in the fields during the day). It is great that these old solar panels are being put to good use.

In unrelated news we went to Bolga yesterday to run some errands along with feeding gas to the insatiable beast that is our van and revisiting the welder.

The other day we had dinner at Pok's house, it was a beautiful time. We were glad to see him, even though he had to drive a casket to Sirigu for the funeral we were lucky enough to witness today. Funeral's are a two day celebration here, where the entire village gathers at the family's house to drum and dance. We saw about 30 men dressed in tribal war gear holding satchels of arrows and dancing in a line around the house. Two days of this, wow; James one of the drummers looked exhausted. He has been working with us during the day and drumming all night long for the past few nights. It's a relentless fiesta! There had also been a cow killed, and it laid at the house's entrance as some of the villagers danced on it. Rock on!

Anna

And the community has given us Zamatikas (Smocks)!