For the past 10 months, I have been preparing to lead
a team of 11 to Guatemala to drill a water well in a local village.
Our trip was the last of 4 mission trips our church committed to in 2014, and
as we prayed for each team and heard the amazing stories from their
return, I grew that much more excited about this trip. I had no clue what to expect, as I had never been to central America,
nor had I been on an international mission trip, let alone led one. I was
anxious, but extremely excited.
On Saturday November 1, myself and my team met at 5
AM at our church, loaded up 2 vans and headed to the airport to begin our
journey to Guatemala. We arrived in Guatemala City, got our luggage, proceeded
through customs, and met 2 of the most amazing guys I have ever had the
opportunity of knowing; our hosts, drilling engineers and staff members of Living Water International,
Rudi and Manuel. These guys loved their country, their jobs and the Lord, and
you could see it in how they lived their lives.
After meeting we loaded into
the van’s for our “short” 1 hour drive to Antigua, Guatemala. Although, we were
unaware that November 1st is a national holiday for “The day of the
dead”, where all Latin Americans go and celebrate their loved ones
since past, which meant that our 1 hour trip turned into a 3 ½ hour trip.
Yikes!
The next morning, we woke up, went to eat breakfast at an
incredible restaurant in town and went to a local bi-lingual church in Antigua. It was such a treat to be lead in worship in both Spanish
and English. It was something I will never forget. After church we headed back
to the house, had lunch and packed up the van and truck for our drive to Nueva
Conception, where the local village is located. The trip was roughly a 3 hour
drive, which we came to realize was because nobody in Guatemala drives over 40
mph. But it was nice to take our time and enjoy the amazing local sites
(volcanoes, mountains, local plantations, etc.). Once we arrived in Nueva
Conception, we checked into our “hotel”, which was basically just a bunch of
rooms with beds in them (and a few bugs), but they at least had window A/C
units... which come to find out, my room was one of the only ones that actually
worked. My roommate and I learned really quick to keep that knowledge to
ourselves, lest we have a coup.
The next morning we woke up early and headed about 20
minutes down a dusty old country road to the village that we would be drilling
in named Las Pampas. We arrived to the school that we would be drilling in front
of and were greeted by all of the amazing people of the community. We were
quickly ushered into the school open air auditorium for a welcome ceremony,
where the locals told us how glad they were they we had come, and how long they
had been praying for this. It was quite the pep rally.
Our team was divided into 2 groups, 8 drillers and 4 hygiene
teachers. As the hygiene team started meeting the locals and inviting them to
their classes, my team started to prepare the drill rig and site for our work
for the next 4 days. The first day was our exploration day: we would drill to
about 200 ft in order to explore the soil/rock samples to find the
best and cleanest water depth. The village did have a well that they had dug,
but it was around 40 feet and would easily get contaminated by waste and
pollutants. Finding water isn’t a problem in Guatemala, the water table is
about 7 feet down, but finding clean Agua Pura is the real challenge. It took
us all day to get down to about 180 feet. We would drill 5 feet and take a soil
sample and preserve in a ziplock baggy. Once we got down to a safe depth,
Manuel laid all of the bags out and reviewed the type of rock at each depth. He
concluded that we would drop our pipe 160 feet in order to get the best water
quality. We headed back to the hotel, had a late diner and crashed from
exhaustion.
The next day our plan was to bore out the hole to about 7
inches all the way down to 160 feet. This process took a lot longer than
expected. As it turns out the ground was a lot harder and rockier than
expected. We had to slowly drill each 5 foot section, and about half way down
we realized we had broken our drill bit. Luckily we had an extra, but that
meant the slow process of removing all pipe, replacing the bit, and drilling
back down again, which was very slow and tedious. After another long day, we
headed back to our hotel for a much needed nights sleep.
The plan for the next day was to prepare the pipe and drop
it down to depth, and then pack the cavity around the pipe with gravel to help
with stabilization as well as filter out sand and dirt. The first 40 feet of
pipe is perforated and allows for the water to be absorbed into the well. As we
dropped the pipe we didn’t realize that some of the hole had collapsed
around the perforated filter section, not allowing for the gravel to drop down
and protect the screen from sand and dirt. Unaware, we dropped all 160 feet of
pipe into the ground, and started to flush the well out with an air compressor.
We quickly realized that the perforated pipe was clogged and was not going to
allow water to flow properly. After about an hour of discussion between Rudi
and Manuel, and hearing the word “problemo” way too many times, Manuel told us
that there was a possibility that we may have to start all over again and
re-drill another hole. Although this was frustrating news, we were ready to do
whatever we needed to do to complete our goal. Manuel said he had one idea
that we would try first. We would drop the drilling pipe down inside the pipe
and once we got down to the perforated section we would flush with clean water
to try and push all of the debris out of the screen, and allow for the gravel
to settle around the pipe. By this time our hygiene team was there watching,
and we took advantage of an incredible moment to gather our team, the Living
Water team and all of the locals together and pray over the well. We prayed in
English and Spanish and asked God to perform a miracle and allow this long shot
to work. One of the local pastors in the community came and we all prayed in
faith that God would do an incredible work. After about 3 hours of flushing,
and adding more gravel, it was decided that it had worked and could now
properly flush the well. We left instructions for the locals to make a concrete
slab form and create a concrete base for the well to sit in, and we headed to the
hotel.
We arrived back for our last day at Las Pampas to a
completely formed and cured concrete slab with the pipe sticking out of the
middle. It is incredible to see the ingenuity and talent of these people. We
spent the rest of the morning flushing out the well, and cleaning the rig,
equipment and drill site. After lunch, we had an incredible dedication service
with the entire community filled with prayers, thank yous, and songs. We
packed up and dropped the drill rig at the next drill site for a group coming
back the week after next.
These guys have the most amazing job. We came in for
one week and experienced, in my opinion, a trip of a lifetime, and Manuel and
Rudi get to do this all over again in a couple of weeks. How rewarding!
The next day would be our final day and was designated as a
tourist day in Antigua. It was an amazing time, visiting some incredible sites
in Guatemala, with a group of amazing people, both Guatemalan and American that
I had grown to love as brothers and sisters!
Click here for pictures
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