Going back a couple of weeks, this is how it looked after I returned to Nairobi and the concrete stand had been cast. Protus (left) is the Kenyan who has done all the hard work, and Joseph (right) is a water project worker who has helped us with community relations.
We then had the fun of installing the pump. Here’s the bit that goes right down at the bottom and pumps the water (this borehole was drilled to 30m and the cylinder shown here was put at 24 metres).
A lot of manpower is required to carefully lower each pipe down the borehole before holding it in place and connecting the next one – if we were to drop them, it might be goodbye for ever!
And here is the top part finally being fitted. It is a great moment when the first water is pumped out – and it only took 5 minutes before we were surrounded by buckets waiting to be filled.
So, once the community had made a fence and the borehole switched on for good (OK, there is no switch, but there is a crucial component you can remove until you are happy with the fence!) it was time to visit for a celebration. The rains had come, just the week before and the blue truck had got stuck in the river, so it was back to bikes for the journey.
We were very happy that the churches at Gasmala and Tomaji joined with us to celebrate, as the village of Lokaji has no church of its own. Here’s the Gasmala Sunday school choir giving it their all.
There was a great turn-out from the community…
… and Justin was able to entertain them with his dry tissue paper man, explaining Jesus’ words “whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst”.
At the end of the service we all went to the borehole to cut a ribbon and say a prayer - a proud moment for me and Joseph.
And then it was back across the river and homeward to relieve the babysitters (thanks team!)
.jpg)
