Sewage and Skype

Trip to Rundu

This last Friday we were finally able to get a free ride to and from Rundu and pick up all of the remaining items for the garden project. Now all that must happen is to get the fence tightener machine borrowed from a local, buy some cement and pay someone a small amount to help us build the fence. Luckily all these things are being arranged by our project group and have nothing to do with me. What you can pray for is what God is in charge of and that’s the height of the river. Pray that the river level will stay down and everything will dry up so we can get on with building the fence and erecting the water stand. The water stand has already been built but is just sitting behind one of the local bars where it was built, waiting to be finally put up at the garden site. The water was down for all of February and literally a few days before we were supposed to build the fence and have the stand put up it started raining again and the river flooded to well past our garden plot. The flooding is a blessing in that it fertilizes the ground with the river silt but bad because we may have to wait until late April to start building everything.

Drilling for water

In other news By Provision is coming this afternoon to go to Katope and Sawato to start drilling. We were finally able to visit Katope, Sawato and Mukekete 2 with the clerk to assess the situation and see if everything is ready to go. Katope and Sawato were ready so we thought we would spend this whole trip going here this time. Mukekete 2 is really a prime site because the existing wells have a static water level of around 11m and are completely encased in rock. These are good because the water is so close we can feasibly get a high volume well out of them and the ground is solid rock so the well has no chance of caving in after being drilled. However they will try to come back there later this year but the road to that village is deep sand in parts and could be inaccessible until next years rainy season when the sand gets more compacted. Anyway this week they are gonna try and drill three wells in Katope and two in Sawato. I think if we drill two in Katope and they are dry we will just go to Sawato because the water table is too low. Pray that by drilling in the valley we will be close enough to the water table. The last time we drilled we had water immediately after drilling but then weeks later only wet mud in the bottom. That tells me we were close to the top of the water table so that by going to an adjacent valley instead of the crest of a hill we will find success. It seems a bit ridiculous to me that finding water is this haphazard but that’s what happens when all the government boreholes have no measurements recorded so you can’t judge the relative water level of an area.

Vacation

We have been planning our coming vacation in April/May. At first Rachel’s sister Beth and her family will be coming for 9 days starting April 28^th. Then we plan to visit Mozambique for 13 day trip with about 9 in the country and 4 traveling. We plan to go to Tofo and Vilanculos which are southern coastal towns of Mozambique. Should be a lot of relaxing, snorkeling, archipelago visiting and whale shark diving. Before that we have the Easter holiday when we will be in Okahandja and are able to Skype that whole weekend. If you would like to Skype that weekend we made a schedule and you can choose a time from below. The time on the left is Pacific Standard Time

Friday 4-2-10
PST Namibia
7am 4pm – Beth and Anthony
8am 5pm
9am 6pm – Jon and Lisa
10am 7pm
11am 8pm – Brian and Kerri
12pm 9pm
1pm 10pm
2pm 11am

Saturday 4-3-10
PST Namibia
7am 4pm – Clark and Kathy
8am 5pm
9am 6pm – Katie Burke
10am 7pm
11am 8pm
12pm 9pm
1pm 10pm – Nate and Jen
2pm 11am
11pm 8am

Sunday 4-4-10
PST Namibia
12am 9am
1am 10am
7am 3pm
8am 4pm
9am 5pm – Mystie and Dan
10am 6pm
11am 7pm
12pm 8pm
1pm 9pm
2pm 10am

Since I (Caleb) started writing this blog we began drilling at Katope and our first well had an initial 3m of water in it. Hopefully it will rise overnight and be more than 5m. The static water level is at 75ft with the well being 84ft deep. Praise God for the water and hope it rises!

Sewage

Also in the amount of time I(Caleb) have been writing this blog our septic tank filled up and has been overflowing in our yard. This makes it so you can’t have a shower without everything backing up and probably some sewage water working its way up to the shower. Yum!!! Lets hope they can get it fixed soon:) This reminds me of the time my Grandpa Stephens septic tank filled up and we had to dig down to it to check and then call in the honey wagon. I remember learning the word “spell” from Uncle Bob and I think “honey wagon” was also a new word at the time. I think the smell of the sewage in my yard is a potent reminder of that memory when I was a kid.

More Drilling

Today Wednesday) Gary and the crew went out to drill and Gary got stuck in the mud because it rained a lot last night. Evidently it rained all night in the bush and there were large lakes where the road used to be. The hole they had drilled to 90ft the day before and planned to drill to 120ft started to cave in so they pulled out and decided to move spots. When they were moving they had to go over a hill and because of the rain the large truck with the drill and air compressor slipped as they were gunning it to make it over this hill. Because of the mud the large truck slipped into a tree and did some major damage to the air compressor. This is not your ordinary air compressor. Just imagine something the size of four refrigerators stacked like a cube. Its six tons and takes up a large part of the flatbed truck. This means drilling is over for now in Katope and they need to go back and retool the compressor with their repairman. A total bummer for us and the people of the villages. We're not sure of the Lord's plan on this one but I'm pretty sure this wasn't part of it. Please pray that Gary can get their air compressor working again without major cost or repair and that it does indeed get fixed. Otherwise they would have to purchase a new one which is very expensive and has to be shipped from the States.

Water Bucket in Mukekete 2 Wells

Mukekete 2 Hand Dug Well (11m to water)

Cattle Trough next to well with old man

The clerk I work with often and the principal from Mukekete 2 with well in background

Another Mukekete 2 Hand Dug Well. They have over 16 wells like this

Old Men of Mukekete 2

Mahango - This is the staple food of the Namibian people

Mahango - notice the small seed balls. They strip these off, beat them, soak them, beat them, mash them then cook them into a wonderful bland paste called porridge

Meerkat squirrel thing in my yard. Thought it was cool and hadn't seen it before. If you can identify it and tell me you'll win $1,000,000,000 cash.