Mali Water Pump Project

Before heading to the village, we went to Air France so Sam and Jason could get early check-in. We were eager to get to the village because the drilling would be finished this afternoon. When we arrived at the village they had already drilled to 58 meters. At 52 meters, a small water pocket was hit and because the rock they were drilling through at that point was fractured granite, we were very hopeful to hit a bigger source of water, one large enough to sustain a water pump. However, after the water pocket the rock formation changed back to hard rock.

Unfortunately, we awoke to the news that the drilling team did not hit water at the indicated depth of 70 meters. They drilled to 72 meters and decided to stop. The rock was very hard and not “giving” as they put it. The rock would give, break, and would not be difficult to drill through if we were going to hit water. Therefore, the drilling ceased and this morning we met with the owner of the drilling company, looked at all of our options, and created a new plan.

We think this was about his eleventh lollipop!

Since the drilling company is unable to bring their equipment to the village to start the work until Saturday, we decided to be tourists for the day. First, we went to the National Museum of Mali. They have an area where many artifacts are displayed, an area showing the different textiles of Mali through the years, and also replicas of mosques. This is also the first time some of us have seen grass in Mali! Then we went to Amadines for lunch. It is a restaurant that not only has pizza, but has ice cream too! At over 100 degrees outside, any ice cream is delicious.

Today we split up into two groups. Ben, Dr. Carter, Sam and I went to our usual village, Gwelekoro, while Asha and Jason went to a school to donate supplies and the village another village which Pete and Faye (who run the mission house) help.

Today, we woke up to the coolest temperature of our trip (90F) and rode to the village. When we got there, we discovered that the surveyors had marked a spot for drilling. While this seemed like great news, the location of the water presented two obstacles: 1.) the land belonged to a village family, not us, and 2.) the spot was 1 ft. from a huge "she" tree. The first obstacle was quickly overcome when Jean-Pierre, our guide, negotiated with the patriarch of the family to get the land turned over to the project. The villagers volunteered to cut the tree down today for a small fee.

After resting up from the long trip, we began meeting with everyone working with us on this project on Sunday. We met with the surveying and drilling companies to discuss the cost and timing of each as well as the pump and linkage system installation. Additionally, we took a walk around the areas surrounding the mission house. It was interesting to see people on the streets, shops and stores opening selling anything from clothes to cellphone minutes, and wave to the neighborhood kids.

On our way to Bamako, the capital of Mali, we had a layover in Paris which we tried to take full advantage of! We took the train into the city, strolled by The Louvre (picture) then ventured over the Seine River where we stopped for lunch. We caught a quick glimpse of the Eifel Tower but did not have a chance to go. Then it was back to the airport for our six hour flight into Bamako!