Good Water

It's something we take for granted, right? Here, in a developing country, it's not. We have experienced our driest months of the year now in Honduras. The grass and the mountains surrounding us are brown and dry, appearing almost like a desert. There is a fine layer of dust that settles over everything inside and out throughout the day, people cough and sneeze, we have even lost a patient in the hospital due to a severe asthma attack.

Our hospital well supplies safe water to our neighbors on either side of our property, 66 houses total. During the dry season, we have learned that our well is being taxed beyond its limits due to an increase in demand for water. Where did the increase come from? It was a puzzle for awhile--was there a leak somewhere? No, but we had to rule it out first. Come to find out, our neighbors have been giving out water to their family and friends.

Last week, we were able to install a new well pump with a more powerful motor to keep up with the demand. It was interesting to watch. I had not given much thought to the machine that makes our clean water possible until our cistern ran dry a few times due to the increase in demand for water. Then I thought about it a lot--I even prayed for it--this thing that I hadn't thought much about before.

We are delighted to say that after several days work to construct and install a scaffold in order to pull up the 5 pieces of 25 ft. pipe to get to the pump, we now have a new well pump with a 5 horsepower motor installed. Now to decide what to do about the neighbors giving away their water . . .




A picture of the scaffold that was constructed to replace the well pump.



Pulling up a section of pipe.




Eli sitting beside the old pump--it has done SO much good for SO many people--I couldn't believe how little and skinny it is!