October 7th – We Are Drilling a Well

After a three hour delay this morning we were finally on the drill site at Mbandaka Three Church.  Nothing major, we just couldn’t find a generator that worked right so we could drill 12 holes in our square tubing used to lower and turn the auger.  To solve the problem, we hauled the tubing to a local blacksmith’s shop and rented power from his generator and a grinder.  Steve described the way our drill was plugged as “They wrapped bare wires around the prongs on the plug and then stuffed a plastic in between to hold it in place.”

Once we were on site it didn’t take long to get everything setup and ready.  At 10:55 AM our team of new drillers broke soil on the first bore hole.  By the end of the day, we (the team not Steve and I) had drilled nearly 30 feet.  It was slow going as over half the distance drilled was clay.

At day’s end the team was ready to call it a day.  Standing in the sun in 95 degree heat all day will definitely wear you out.  I was ready to go to bed as soon as we returned to the guest house, but dinner with the Bonangas is calling.

While Steve, Carmen, Jacques and I were at the well site all day, the rest of the team was visiting various church departments again and continuing to work on technology issues.  Tomorrow we start again at 7:30 AM and plan to work until 3:00 PM.  The early quitting time is more in line with the workday here in the DRC, and so we shall comply; even though we want to keep going until we hit clean water.