Surrounded by a group of local volunteers and all of us, the honor of turning the 4” ball valve for the first time was given to the father of our hosts and his son.  They crouched down, turned the huge red valve together and everyone applauded…..a few seconds later the thunderous sound of the water rushing in and dropping 10’ to the bottom of the first tank brought huge smiles and cheers from all!

The word got out fast that water was flowing and lots of people came by to listen to it pour into the tanks.

Game on!

We of course have tons of work left to do, but at least now they are convinced that, in fact all the trenches really do hold water and filter it beautifully.

Furthermore, this week the locals dug their first trench, lined it and installed every layer of the filter system all on their own.  Again, great smiles of pride in THEIR system.

So far we have only been collecting the water in the series of storage tanks. Week 3 saw the start of preparations to distribute the water. Yesterday we hoisted the first of two 15’ high solar panels mounted on heavy steel posts and bedded them in giant concrete postholes.  The weather was looking iffy, but we wanted to get it safely up off the ground.  So we started mixing the concrete, only to have to endure a nasty hailstorm for the duration of the pour! But we finished and then once again, looking like drowned rats, we trudged up the hill to our digs.

In the next couple of days, when we complete the wiring, the water being collected should start to move up to the distribution tanks.  Can’t wait to turn open the first tap!

It’s been a week of piping PVC manifolds, landscaping where we have been trenching, setting the culvert grate, rolling out hundreds of feet of supply lines and mixing concrete, mixing concrete and mixing more concrete….

The high drama of the week was when a huge water buffalo and her calf came charging down the road while we were working on the culvert grate!  Someone yelled and we all jumped to the sides of the road.  Neither mother nor calf put one hoof into wet concrete.  Oh yeah, then they came back up the road near the end of the work day….again, not stepping in any of our work, except that mom paused to take a huge dump right beside us.

Now that’s life in a different kind of fast lane!

Rome

A few more photos