Hygiene and Drilling

Today, we got to work! We began our day with music and devotions. Music was led by Douglas, Roger and Marcio, singing some classic Contemporary Christian praise music - in both English and Spanish. We also had a devotion, led by Pastor Joe, who shared about Jesus feeding the 5,000, and how we are compelled to participate in God's work in the world.

Douglas, Roger and Marcio praise the Lord in song.

We packed up our things and loaded the truck for heading to our work site, about 30 minutes away. Our travels were mostly on nicely and recently paved roads, but then came the inevitable gravel road leading to our drill site at Tololar #2. This is a small village in the sugar cane fields beneath Volcano San Cristobal, which last erupted just three years ago, causing no damage but helping the residents remain vigilant.

Tololar #2 resides beneath a volcano, in sugar cane land.

Driving to Tololar, we pass the sugar cane,

and have a clear view of Volcan San Cristobal

 Our tasks were twofold today. One team taught over 30 adult women about hygiene in the morning, and 50 children in the afternoon. They learned about germs, and how disease gets transferred from animal, to feces, to us. They enjoyed some graphic, and as it seemed, quite effective teaching techniques using playdough food, fake "poopa", and one enormous fly to spread some germs!

Let's get dirty! This was the battle cry of the drilling team. We drilled into the earth with a 4" diameter drill bit and piping. The village has an existing open (non-sanitary) well, and we needed to go deeper than this to another aquafer. As it turned out, we went to 120 feet! Far more than expected by our group, but seemingly in line with our professionals. Of course, they made it easy for us gringo's to get some battle scars, of sorts.

Grimy Gringo's showing off their mud.

Tuesday is another day, and we will be mixing up our teams with two of the drillers swapping places with two of the teachers. This should be... interesting! Stay tuned!

Happy Frolicking!
The PCB Living Water Team.