12 June 2017

Since the Pozzo dei Desideri project was born almost 4 years ago, this is certainly the worst day. The presentiments of yesterday, today have not only come true but became a nightmare. We tried to make a second hole in the village at 700m above sea level but not only we didn’t find the water but we also blocked the probe (i.e. the extreme tip) of the auger at 44 meters deep. We tried all of them to remove it but evidently the same damned rock of yesterday has collapsed and disengaging it is a difficult task. At first we thought it was earth and therefore we threw down water, but nothing. Then thinking that it was rock we tried with soapy water in the illusion that some small friction was overcome. Nothing. At that point we went back to Balaka to take a train jack and a 5-ton hoist. Nothing to do, we also risked the truck toppling over. More than 8 hours of attempts and nothing to do. The Indian owner of the auger to which we phoned to warn him I think his ancestors heard it up to Calcutta from what he barked. If you can’t recover, the damage is tens of thousands of euros. The last hope is to try to lift the probe through an arch that we have recovered. We will try to hang the hoist there, hoping it will hold. Much disappointment for all the people of the village because there, regardless of how it goes tomorrow, we will not build the well. And a lot of sadness for this year’s project which risks unfortunately ending up like this. Skip the next well, skip the well at Solidali’s Monkey Bay and the other well at Toleza if we don’t solve everything by tomorrow. We will see how it goes tomorrow. While we were going up and down in Balaka to find some gadget that would help us, I wondered how it is possible that in this country, where there is very few things, when you need something you can always find it. In my city, if they asked me to find a 5-ton hoist or a bow like the one in the picture, I could at best find it on Google.
Even today, the people of Malawi managed to snatch a smile from me: towards the end of this absurd day, a guy from the village arrived with a bucket full of water asking us to throw it into the hole to free the probe. He had worked on it all day to prepare the liquid with magical herbs …
Malawi, you made a bad joke today.