Day 5 in Honduras

Apologies…this was posted the morning of day 6 because we had no internet yesterday.

We got to sleep in today…30 minutes. Yahoo! We’ve decided that the first day that we were here there were 24 hours. The second day lengthened to 48 hours long, and today was an eternity.

It was supposed to be an “easier” day. It was less muddy to be sure, but no less easy. I’m sure our weariness factors in to the “how hard was it” matrix.

After the usual devotions, breakfast and ride to Nueva Mendes, we began by testing the depth of the water in the well. We found that there was 100 feet of water in the 150 foot length…a great sign.

Next we got out the plunger (doesn’t look like ours at home, but does the same thing). A past team returned home after their trip to Honduras and invented it for the purpose of plunging the well. Before this they did exhausting work at it for sometimes up to 8 hours. This plunger made it possible for the well-drilling machine to plunge for us, turning the process into 80 minutes. The purpose was just to help clean out the gunk.

After plunging we fitted the well with an air compressor hose sunk to the bottom. The thought was that we would literally create a vacuum and blow the rest of the gunk out of the well. Hah. It kept getting plugged so we had to do it the hard way. By putting smaller pipe down the well until we reached the bottom, and flushing the water up and out. A hundred and fifty feet of 2” PVC gets heavy. It took all of us to hold, screw in and lower the pipe.

Did I mention the sun was shining? Beautiful and hot.

Next came the submersible pump. Again, after pulling up the 150 feet of 2” PVC, we attached a 30 pound pump and had to lower it all again. Even heavier.

It will pump out water through the night, trying to fill the well with clean fresh water from the aquifer.

More children, more men, more women. Lots of laughter. Erica, our 16 year old for North Carolina has boys of every age fawning over her. Whenever they ask her to be their girlfriend she just replies, “Mean daddy!” Smart girl.

Let’s see…big spiders…salamanders…screaming women…that about covers the day.

Tomorrow we assemble the pump and dedicate it with the community. Then off we go, back to La Ceiba for a day of rest. Well deserved, I might add.

BTW...My REAL AMERICAN DIET COKE was incredible!!!