How Many Cows

I’m almost finished with my second week in Uganda and, as usual, I have a lot to share and little time to do it 🙂

At the moment, we are drilling in Butenga (a village of 250 ppl). This site was selected by Washington, a Ugandan man I trained here in 2012 for Hydromissions.

Washington selects communities that he has checked out to determine need and soil conditions. The soil conditions part is always a bit tricky but by looking at surface conditions and talking to the community, you can usually find out a lot about the subsurface.

Their current water sources are pits they have dug to collect rainwater runoff. The closest borehole well is 2.5 miles away in a village called Butosuta.

This borehole well is very difficult – the most difficult I’ve faced in years.

We drilled about 7′ before hitting a hard surface. We cracked a bit of it out but kept getting stuck. We ended up drilling three other test boreholes, each getting caught between 5′-7′.

Collectively, we decided to hand dig to the rock layer and try to dig it out. We are all still encouraged with every layer of shale-like rock we remove. The community is completely involved and they all seem to think that if we get past the shale, we can easily reach water. Some of the layers are quite thick and that worries me, but as long as the men are willing to keep going, I’m game 🙂

John is my current volunteer from the States. He is a great help and the guys in the village love him. John keeps Washington and the other guys laughing quite a bit.

Jessica has left already, but she was a great help during my first week. Jessica helped me get a drill kit here for Jerald (our Tanzanian partner for Hydromissions) and showed him some new low-tech pump designs to use in Tanzania. Jess and I also got to learn a lot from Water for All International missionaries, Collin and Ronnie Rosser. We also spent a mornings helping Jennifer at the medical clinic in Obule.

Although I’m in Uganda at the moment, I’ve done my best to communicate with project communities in Haiti. You all have probably seen more footage then I have about the hurricane, but using “WhatsApp,” I have been able to communicate with Marlaine, from Faith and Love in Action (FLA). The children in FLA homes are safe but traumatized and buildings have sustained damage. The crops that feed those kids have been destroyed. Up in Marbial, no word on the condition of the school, the homes or livestock but initial reports do not indicate loss of life in Marbial. I’m scheduled to be in Haiti as soon as I finish here in Eastern Africa (end of November). Please keep them in your prayers.

I do not have regular access to the internet so if you would like to send a message to me visit: https://share.delorme.com/Caitlinterry