Ready Set Go! And it starts with a bang and a nice surprise.
Yesterday no connection and not even current, but today it should hold up.
The first well this year was dug while I was on the plane to come here. The usual mishaps of Malawi this time have done very well. The team had misunderstood the day to arrive and arrived early on Thursday.
While I was at the airport Agostino called me making “an offer that I could not refuse”. In order not to waste the day’s work, the team proposes to carry on digging the hole overnight. I was a little hesitant but then Agostino convinced me, on the other hand he was there to check and also we got a super discount to do everything.
I gave him the okay and they immediately went to work under the light of the headlights of the truck.
The village, Ngonza, was one of those selected in the previous weeks and the nice thing is that it can also be used by three other nearby villages.
Too bad I missed the joy of people when water was found in abundance. In the photos you can see the night work.
After a super sleep to recover from the 24-hour trip Italy-Ethiopia-Zambia-Malawi, today I wake up at 6 to go to know the village of the previous night and to bring cement for the construction of the well.
With the money saved we will do many other beautiful things in the next few days!
And today we didn’t stop for a moment.
I finally meet “my” team, the Band of Wells. And it’s a big party! Kisses, hugs and laughter. In addition, I have a gift for them, the photographic book of the Well of Desires. They didn’t believe they could see their faces printed in a book!
Only time to recover after the fright at the news that the Indian, their leader, had sold the machine to make the wells and that this meant that tomorrow we would have to return the excavator.
Fortunately, we managed to negotiate and, for the time it will take, it will be available to us in the next few days. My blood had frozen.
We ran for a new well, and for the first time we left Balaka district to do it in Kalimanyila, in the Ntcheu district.
There are fewer parties than usual upon arrival. They explain that all women are at a funeral. In fact there were only children.
They cleared the ground where we would have dug.
The works were very difficult, more than 10 hours.
Infamous soil that was constantly collapsing and for this reason we had to take 7,500 liters of water from a nearby stream. All to shoot water mixed with a fixative under the ground to prevent the collapse. Complicated and long operation, with continuous coming and going to the river and some repairs to be made to the truck.
But in the end we won it and, almost at sunset, here is the water! Also this year always exciting. Dance and sing to celebrate when it was already pitch dark and with our mind already thinking about tomorrow to continue with another village.
Hi Malawi, it’s always nice to see you again!