This morning, Rolf left at 8:30 for Dibate. His plan was to pick up the water technician and fix the well here in Gesses. He encountered numerous challenges in Dibate. The glue he had purchased for this project and given to the technician ended up in someone’s hands and so they had to search for some more glue. Pipes were not all given and so Rolf had to make a second trip to Dibate later in the day.
About 15 Gumuz men helped all day in pulling the old pipes out of the well, and inserting the new ones (I will have to get Rolf to describe it since I don’t understand the process). It took all day and it was hot and humid and there was no water to drink at the well so everyone was rather dehydrated by the end.
We were praising God for the news that the well was working at 5pm and Rolf came home with several jerricans of water. (Though we still have water for washing and cooking, we were down to our last cup of drinking water!)
We had just finished supper, when Mesalech came to our front door. She had walked all the way to the well with a donkey and 4 jerricans and the well was not working! How discouraging to hear after 7 hours of work!
Apparently there are water issues every year at this time and we are amazed at the peaceful acceptance of this sitiation. Women happily walk to the dry spring and dig for water. They scoop up the water as it comes to the surface with their gourd (a small bowl) and painstakingly fill their jerricans. Imagine spending more than 3 hours a day just to get 20 liters of water (that you then have to carry by hand....uphill.)
So Rolf will return again tomorrow in hopes that it is an easier problem to fix. There are numerous things that Rolf must do and other things he would like to do this week. Is the water situation distracting us from what we really need to do? Or is this the work we must do in order to show our love for the Gumuz?
Pray for wisdom and pray for God’s mercy on this parched land.
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