I guess you could say that it has taken me a few days to process our A~mazing trip down to Kovie'. I'm realizing every time I get to tell the story again, I get super excited and want to do it all over again! It is so clear to Matt and I that this is what God wants us to be doing....giving water in His name. There is a saying here that Water is Life and it's so true, think about what your day would look like if you didn't have water. There is no drinking, washing, cooking or bathing.
Now think about you day if you had to walk 5 miles~~one way~~ to get 5 gallons of putrid water that you can't see through, out of the river. Now that you’re down there, some of your friends have come to wash their families clothes, and another friend is letting their cattle drink. Oh and the cattle are relieving themselves while their at it. But you still desperately need water.
It's hard for me to think that we live in a world with so much technology and advancement, but yet there is a country in West Africa where 70% of people don't have clean water.... This is where God brought in Water4 and us. We have recently formed 5 year strategy for our team that is now a nation~wide strategy. When we moved here we thought we would only be working in Kara and with the Kabiye, but God had a bigger idea.
We left on August 8th to drive down to Lome' {the capital city} Matt, myself and Tchozo, a Kabiye friend that has helped and worked with Matt and Dave Reeves {former teammate} during the past well drilling seasons with the old method. We spent the night in Lome' and Monday morning we went into town and bought all the supplies we would need for the well because we planned to stay in the village for the week. {Kovie' is about 40 minutes northwest of Lome'.} We finished our shopping and were pulling into the village after lunch. Kovie' is a huge village with 10 neighborhoods, the village of Kovie' is around 4,000 people. And the neighborhood we were in is called Dzogbeto {go ahead, try to say it!} with about 900 people, and NO source of water. The families that have the money have paid to put cisterns and gutters in that catch the water coming off of the tin roofs, but it's still not sufficient for their needs and not clean. So obviously they would be a little excited that we are coming to help them right? No, they were EXTREMELY excited that we were coming to help them, so much so that there were never less than 100 people every day. {A little tricky for Matt and I considering this is our first well by ourselves with this new technique!} So, we arrived Monday afternoon, unloaded all of the supplies and started putting together the tools and tripod. The first day we waist no time and get to work, by 6:00p.m. we have augered down to 5 meters {16 ft} and it's all sand. Matt, Tchozo and myself set up camp right by the drilling site, but the chief wanted us to stay in some ones house, so we asked him that since the tents were already up, if we could stay just that night and then move into a house.
Day 2~ Let the fun begin!! Everyday we were up and out at the site by 6:00a.m. ready to work. We were augering down and hit some really compacted clay. So naturally we pull out our handy dandy 3 chisel hammer to see if we can bust through some of it....well, 1 of the chisels decided that it wanted to break off.....in clay....I mean these are beefy tools, you don't find them at Lowes or Home Depot. Luckily, we have more awesome tools for getting the other awesome tools out if something happens, like a rare earth magnet {I know...sounds cool} that can lift up to 200lbs. So after working it a little, Matt triumphantly pulls out the chisel, and I definitely wish I had gotten a picture of the faces when the chisel came up....priceless. Now we have a beefy 2 prong hammer.. Thankfully this ca still get the job done. Eventually we got past the compacted clay layer with a lot of work. The rest of the day went smoothly, and we hit water at 9 meters {30ft}. I believe that this is my favorite part of drilling a well. The first time that we see the soil becoming moist, and the moment that the auger comes up wet, everyone gets so excited because you know that there is water.
Day 3 & 4~ Everything went as planned, it was a little slow, the sand was even so compacted that it was hard to get out. By the end of day 4, we were at 10 meters {33ft} in what looked like asphalt. But we had a little over 2 meters {7ft} of water so we were happy. To tell you the truth we were worried that we wouldn't find water at all. The people had tried 2 hand dug wells and hit rock with no water, and also dug out a huge watering hole, that in the height of rainy season, is dry. It could not be a better place for God to do a miracle.
Day 5~We come to the site, and discover that the hole has collapsed 1 meter {3ft}.....so....back to work grinding through the harden and compacted asphalt looking sand. So compacted that the square tubing attached to the auger that you use to turn the augers, twisted and broke of....7 meters {23ft} inside the hole, with a full auger. We tried our awesome magnet, but to no avail. There was not enough metal to grab hold of and the auger itself was buried in the bottom of the hole. Then my amazing husband, genius that he is, lets down 10 meters {33ft} of square tubing and begins try to fish out the auger and pull it up, which took some talent...ok a lot of talent! But it worked…a close call. By the end of the day, we managed to end up back at 10 meters {33ft}.
Day 6~Things were going slow but good, all we needed was to gain a few more meters and then we wanted to case it. We kept using the auger to try and lift the sand out but it was too compacted. So we bring in our awesome 3 prong {now our 2 prong} hammer to get us through....and....it gets stuck....in the asphalt sand. Wonderful, problem solving Matt, puts square tubing in side the pipe that provides the action of the hammer and somehow is able to hammer it out with a mallet. I'm still not really sure how that happened, but it was amazing. So, in order to get through this compacted sand layer we had the idea to try the old method, known as the Water for all International Method. So we get the tools together and introduce a much more fatiguing way to drilling a well. We are soon reminded why we didn't want to use this method anymore. Within 10 minutes 30 guys are tired and the head of the drilling bit has broken off. At this point we realized we weren’t going to get through this sand layer and we needed to case the well so that we weren't in danger of collapsing the hole. So we took the PVC pipe, cut the filter (we saw the pvc with hack saws to make slits where water but not dirt can get in) and glue it all together (piece by piece as it's going in) and start installing.
Now remember when I told you there were no less and 100 people there a day? Everyone was so excited to see the casing going in the they all rushed over to the hole to help put it in....but in doing so, there were so many hands on the pipe that 2 of the sections came loose and fell apart, luckily we were able to fit them back together and continue putting filter material and a protective cement ring around the hole.
Day 7~ Was the day! It was going to be finished, we would develop it, clean it, install the pump, pour the cement column and pad and this neighborhood would finally have a water source. But Satan didn’t like that plan. We started to develop it {which is using a check valve to lift dirty water out of the hole and letting more water come into the hole until it’s relatively clear} and found that the filter piece had also come unglued from the rest of the pipe. We wished we’d have known that before filling the hole in. Now this was a pickle…we had no choice but to try and lift out the first 8 meters {26ft}. With some talent and a lot of brut force, we were able to get the first 4 meters {13ft} out and raise the second pipe some. We then began augering the dirt and cement and hopefully get the second pipe and the filter to come out. During that time Matt and I went with the chief and some leaders to go look for another spot. By the time we had gotten back to the site the guys had pulled out the second pipe and were halfway through the filter pipe. At the end of the day of God performing miracle after miracle, we were down to 11 meters {36ft}.
Day 8~ We went into town and bought new pipe while the guys worked trying to get back down to 12 meters {40ft}. By the end of the day we were at 12 meters {40ft} and ready to put the new casing in! So exciting! Especially for the 2nd time!
Day 9~ Was the rainiest day I’ve seen here in a long time. Continual down pour…but we had a job to do! So with 4 guys {this was the only day there was far less than 100 people there} Matt worked all day in the rain, developing and cleaning the well. During the development process we found that the water was not recharging. So discouraging. There was no water in the hole. There was water in the hole on day 8, and no water in the hole on day 9. So, problem-solving Matt closes the check valve with bailing wire and starts plunging the well. This pushes the water back into the water table, kind of like shocking it with paddles. God gave us a miracle and water started to come back into the hole. Praise God! We began to clean it and develop it, and the water was not getting clean. It’s a continual muddy red color and we’ve been doing this all day. So finally the sun is setting and we know we have to finish this, we install the pump, cement the column and ask that the chief be the first one to pump it. The crowd is behind the well and I was videoing. The chief starts pumping, and pumping, and pumping…..and nothing is coming out.
Then we heard a beautiful sound, the sound of water climbing inside the pipe… glump….glump….glump and what came spraying out was clean, clear, beautiful, cold water.
This was by far the best well drill that I have been apart of. It was so evident that Satan wanted to keep these people oppressed. He fought us the entire way, doing everything he could to stop us bringing water in Jesus name. But with every downturn and with every obstacle we were able to talk about Christ. We began building a relationship with the community, staying in the home of and sharing Christ with a sorcerer even. We feel Christ’s call so much so that we are planning on putting in another well within the year in that same neighborhood. Everyone that was apart of this well knows that there are only 3 1/2 meters {11 ish ft} of water in this well. Me personally, I’m praying that God does a 5 loaves and 2 fish kind of miracle and makes that tiny water table a life giver to their entire community!
