It's Wednesday night. We've been in Leon for 4 days now. I think I can honestly say that I have laughed more (in frequency and intensity) in these last 4 days than I have in the last 12 months. I found the same to be true when we came down in September to scout these trips. I laughed a ton. Laughter really is the best medicine. I've come to realize, perhaps incorrectly, but I believe rightly, in the midst of some of the most dire poverty (2nd in the Wester Hemisphere only to Haiti), you will find some of the most intense joy. And for me, if I focus solely on the needs I see around me, I would force myself into long naval-gazing sessions every night back at the hotel. Not so when I've been able to see joy every day. Not just from team mates (though we have laughed so hard together that nearly everyone was in tears), but more so from the community that we are serving.
Today was the longest and hardest day on the site that we've experienced thus far. Yesterday ended with the dis-heartening news that we were about a half-day behind the usual schedule. Some of that was just because we're drilling roughly twice as deep as the standard well depth here in Nicaragua (for a variety of reasons, but primarily because we needed a large enough aquifer to produce enough flow for the hand pump). Some of that though was just because we were feeling the enemy attacking. That was evidenced again this morning as we had decided to set out about 30 minutes early today (7:30AM instead of 8).
Less than 5 minutes after leaving the hotel, we got word that the pick-up truck our crew leaders were in had broken down. We went back and picked up what we could and off-loaded it into our team van. We had to stop and get fuel for our pumps. The first station we arrived at was out of fuel (the tanker hadn't come in yet). We located it at the second station, but had eaten up our entire early start. It's amazing that in the midst of doing what is right and good, how much the enemy will try and distract you from your task.
So, once we arrived at the drill site, the first thing we did (before anyone picked up a shovel or donned a hard-hat) was to circle up and pray. And our prayers were answered by about 2 this afternoon when we had finally seen that we were, indeed, producing about 12 - 15 gallons per minute (a hand-pump requires only 5). Out of the revelation that we had managed to create a well and not just a 180' x 7" hole in the ground, sprang one of the greatest moments of joy and excitement I have ever experienced on a corporate level: a water fight!
Let me explain a little. As you develop a well, you have to break-down the bentonite that is caked on the walls of the bore hole (it is caked on during the drilling process to prevent the hole from caving in on itself) so that the water from the aquifer can pass through the "screen" into the pipe (slots that are cut into the pipe to allow water to pass into the casing). Part of that process is to use an air compressor to drive air deep into the casing (with a cap on the top). The compressed air is forced into the water-filled pipe and lifts the water to the top of the casing, causing friction on the screen / wall cake. As you pulse the air compressor, the movement of the water against the wall cake breaks down the bentonite and at some point, water begins passing from the aquifer into the casing and up to the well-head. OK, so that's a lot of technical info to say that we force air into the pipe, which eventually forces water up to the well-head and it has to go somewhere. It comes out the "T" that we put on the top (and today that "T" went through 40' of pipe into a large community "playground"). So as this pressurized water comes to the surface, an immense rush of water comes out of the pipe. Imagine 65-70 kids running around with a large burst of water spraying into their "park"...it's a site to be seen.
Now imagine a bunch of "gringos" filling 5-gallon buckets and dousing each other with water. The kids were so excited to jump in that they began picking up our hard-hats and filling them to throw on each other! From complete frustration yesterday afternoon at being a half-day behind - to laughing and drenching everyone in the community (and I mean EVERYONE was involved) and laughing with nationals at clean water! What a sight!!
Here's my point: We've been experiencing all kinds of feelings the last 4 days. Sunday tore many of our team apart to see the poverty and need. Monday was difficult because it was a day of learning new skills and working very hard. Tuesday got worse because no matter how hard we worked or tried, we kept getting farther behind. This morning, despite all of our best efforts to get ahead of the game it appeared that the enemy would have none of it. Yet by this afternoon, we had seen that our God is greater, that He is faithful and that in His faithfulness there is unsurpassable joy (not just for us individually, but for an entire community). It has been a wonderful, though difficult, week so far.
LWI has a "corporate verse" of sorts, Galatians 6:9 - "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." That has been proved true this week!
-Andy Ott
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