Mali Water Pump Project

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.
In the village on the west side there are two creeks that run together. The idea is to survey that land and find the most favorable spot for water. However, since the land that Jean-Pierre was given is approximately 4 kilometers away from the creeks, the land was previously not considered. We went out to the village today to see the area and begin negotiation with the owners of that land. The village was in prayer all day so we were unable to get that accomplished but will be there early in the morning to start the discussion. In addition to the spot we drilled at yesterday, there was a second spot that the survey picked but said the water was at a depth of 495 feet. This is on Jean-Pierre’s land, however, the pump we have will not work efficiently at that depth nor do we have enough pipes to go down that far. As they were trying to convince us to drill in this spot instead of over in the west part of Gwelekoro, one of the villagers did another survey. He took a Y-shaped stick from the ground, walked around the area, and when it started shaking vigorously, that meant there was water there. Needless to say we were a little skeptical of this surveying work but that is their tradition (as our translator told us).
The surveyor will be coming with us to the village early in the morning so he can begin his work. It will take an entire day to find the most probable spot to drill for water. Therefore, the team has to wait until Thursday for the drilling of the second well to begin. The drilling team was able to drill all 72 meters in one day’s time so we are confident the drilling can be done on Thursday and if we hit water, the pump can be installed on Friday.
Sadly, today is Ben’s last day so we went to Appalooza, a Tex Mex Restaurant in Bamako. The waiters even wore cowboy hats – we never thought we would see that in Africa! We enjoyed some burritos and enchiladas before taking Ben to the airport.