We spent days drilling in this location. We pulled countless buckets of the same exact soil…for meters and meters. It never changed. While I was getting frustrated in how long it was taking and how slow our progress was God was working out all the kinks in the operation. We ended up making some changes … More The Drilling never stops…
During one of our afternoons, we found that progress would be delayed until the following day because our national host, the main pupil for our training, had to move out of his current apartment. One of the american hosts offered to drive us up to his village so we could evaluate the surroundings as a … More Side trip to Panjakent
We traveled around the village teaching our hosts how to pick appropriate locations for the wells. The village was larger then I had expected and had a trench system along each street that brought water from a large canal into the village. The water was all runoff water so it is grossly contaminated. It was … More Final words on Tajikistan
The couple lived in a small mud house with a courtyard area that housed their animals, garden, water filtration jugs and cooking area. When I say “water filtration” – I mean, sediment settling jugs. Basically, they take water from trenches along the road, place them in jugs for a day, allow the dirt and heavy … More Existing Source of Water
Once in the Shaartuz area, we met with an elderly couple who were very excited to be involved in the project to bring wells to their village. This particular couple are friends of our national host, who will be running the Shaartuz well drilling project. Our national host, the elderly couple and a handful of … More Two Christians
The following are a series of photos showing the construction of the lift pump. We had access to a welder and used it to make the valve for the lift pump.
After we finished construction of the pump, we headed to the little village outside of Shaartuz to check out the possible locations for the 12 wells that our Host is going to construct. We traveled along rolling hills but the closer we got to Afghanistan, the more dry and arid the terrain became. We stopped … More Tajik Rest Stop
We were all really happy with the final product and it finally gave the Host a visual to what I had taught them about in Pumps 101. It was really cool when they said “oh, now I get it!” after they saw the pump operating. I was really excited to finish the pump. It was … More Testing Lift Pump
One of the tasks I was really insecure about was constructing a pump. Hydromissions constructs a bailer bucket but not always a pump since they are much more difficult to produce with the limited materials typically available in villages. I was sort of hoping we would not have to construct a pump since I wasn’t … More Lift Pump
First of all, just getting our supplies is at least a day-long activity. The Bazaar was crowded with people and materials and trying to explain “valve” with hand motions and drawings is not easy! We did have interpreters there but Steve and Jen encouraged me to try to find items on my own since I … More Bazaar in Tajikistan
How Many Cows 