Tuesday, March 19, 2013



One of the guys on the paint team mentioned he used a bucket
to flush the toilet at the school.  And  I said, gee there should
have been water to flush…..So I went to check it out.  Sure
enough there was no water, so I met with Yanet and Pasqual
and asked why there was no water at the school.  Pasqual
said he filled it a couple of days ago, but as soon as he fills it
the water goes away.  I asked how does it go away and he
said he doesn’t know, it just goes away.  I turned to Yanet
and she jumped right in to support Pasqual, yes, she said,
the water goes away.  I asked where does it go?  They both
said they did not know, it just goes away.  I couldn’t help
but smile.

It is an interesting problem.  Since we are not there full
time, these bumps raise up every now and then.  One would automatically thing they would investigate and find out
where the water goes.  However, in this culture they are so
used to things breaking down and not getting fixed they
just live with whatever happens.

In the area where the mission house is located, the houses
are made of cement and block.  They are pretty solid homes.
The homes were built for poor families during the President’s
re-election bid as a social services project to get votes.  The
houses have 3 bedrooms and a bath.  However, not many
homes still have running water or working toilets.  For
the most part the electrical still works.  It always amazes
me when I go into one of these homes and see things not
working.  They just don’t have the money at one time to
buy a new facet or toilet.  So they live with it.  Sometimes
they don’t even replace burnt out light bulbs.

Anyway, I started working to explain to them that we
needed to find where the water goes and that it was
important the toilets and sinks were working properly.
Luckily the water was coming from the street so the first
thing was to have Pasqual turn the water and the pump on
to fill the roof tanks.

Once the tanks were filled the next morning we started
eliminating possible ways we were loosing water.  Was the
valve at the pump turned off so the water didn’t flow
backwards to the cistern?  Check, valve was off, next check
the bathrooms, sure enough there was one toilet and one
sink faucet running like the Columbia River!   Well, of
course the water goes away!

Thank goodness I had a couple of handy guys there and they
were able to put on new faucets and fix the leaking toilet.  One
small step for Evergreen4kids, one giant step for the school!

 

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