Day 6 in Honduras

We loaded up the bus, said goodbye to the Hotel Doama, and headed into Nueva Mendes one last time. Our hard work was done. Left were the final steps of installing the pump.

We are all tired, but eager anticipation energized us.

Last night after we left, the men of the village poured a concrete slab around the well site. We left at 6pm so they worked mostly in the dark, one bulb hanging from a tree to light way for them.

By this morning it had hardened enough to stand on. We pulled out the submersible pump we had left in overnight and began dropping 150 feet of pipe…the final pipe…one more time.

It was hard to get an average well depth from Dennis and Nugget. Sometimes they only drill down 25 feet (we wondered what the team did the rest of the week…sleep?), at other times 50’ or 80’. The deepest well they drilled last year was 120’. Our well was 150’. No wonder we were tired.

Since our well was so deep, Living Water had sent a new pumping system that helped deep wells work better. This is the first time they’ve ever installed it.

After dropping the pipe into the well, we dropped the plunger and the water drawing mechanism, then capped the well with the hand pump and we were ready to go.

We spent the next hour dedicating the well, and reminding the children about some of the hygiene tips they’d learned.

Then we all gathered at the well and Brad and Erik tried to pump up water…emphasis on the tried. Then Chris and Josh tried. Then Justin tried. Then Dennis.

It’s a little anticlimactic to work hard all week in anticipation of the moment only to have no water come out of the well. They think they know what the problem is, so the Living Water staff will return tomorrow to fix it. They’ve promised to send a picture of our well with water coming out.

We packed everything up and started our drive back to the Palma Real in La Ceiba. Upon arrival we quickly changed into swimwear and had a glorious swim in the Caribbean Ocean. Beautiful. Tomorrow is a rest day. Well deserved. We have plans, but you’ll have to wait to hear what they are.

I’m going to try to load some pictures on FaceBook, but Michelle was picture happy…there are over 1,000.