more stuff we've been doing lately

our chicken, Loretta Lynn, likes to come in the house and pick up all the food that Silas leaves in his wake.  She was given to us as a gift when we went and spoke at a church in Amuria.  Our other chickens are Wynonna and her chicks - the Judds, and our oldest and most loyal chicken is Reba.  We sort of have a country and western theme going on here with our chickens, not really sure why...

Dan demonstrating just how dirty you get with our drilling method.   This drilling method is called  the "cochina" method (cochino means pig in Spanish) in Boliva and the "baptist" method in other places - mainly because you get really muddy and you don't just get sprinkled but you get fully immersed in the mud.

these two snakes were killed at our church.  Colin wanted to hold them up to  show how long they were., but he isn't tall enough to do it justice.  Every snake that is killed is called a cobra, but I don't think we've seen even one true cobra yet.  Not that I'm looking!

Our friend Charla at Veribest ISD sent us Flat Stanley.  Flat stayed with us for a few weeks and toured Teso, hung out around Soroti, did some well drilling, worked in the gardens, went to market, met a lot of interesting people, and then made the long journey back to Veribest, TX.  In the background you can see Soroti Rock, which is the famous landmark for our town.  We'll miss you Flat!

We have been busy drilling wells, but also busy tweaking our drilling method, our materials, and our design.  When you move from one area or country to another you find different materials.  We have had to make some adjustments in our technology to accommodate the heavy use our wells are getting in this area.  As we drill more and more wells in a given area, the use on each particular well will reduce and we will not have to beef them up quite so much.  Here is a homemade piston we are using made from some inner tube, flip-flops (slippers), a bolt, a couple washers, and nuts.  Pretty simple, but it's bringing water to the surface for people to use.