How Deep is YOUR Well? I Bet It's not as Deep as Ours!

Another Blog Post with limited pictures ... sorry, the entire world is not wired yet.  

So  we're sitting here at an internet cafe in Kaolock, Senegal, Africa, and it's one of the few times we've had any access online.  

Most of our time is spent in Keur Soce - a small village several miles away, and it takes a trip to town to do any computer communication.

With that in mind, I have to be brief.  Hence, I will list a few highlights of the last few days.  We arrived after a scary plane flight on Sunday night.  Since then we have experienced a variety of things:

=  We have painted a training center of nearly 5,000 sq ft, with a small team of volunteers.  We're talking top to bottom, floor to ceiling, wall to wall.  In 100 degree heat. Hard work but very rewarding. 

=  Distributed over 200 books, pencils, backpacks, and textbooks in schools that we work with in nearby villages.   In buildings that we built ... through our Andando Foundation.

=  Visited a Health Post Clinic that we rebuilt on Well Baby day, with 30 babies (and moms) in attendance.  Very productive!

=  Stopped in at several Market Gardens we have developed, with hundreds of women working and doing their best to grow organic crops to feed their families, and even sell in the local economy. This is brought about with the help of solar panels that we installed.  

=  Distributed a huge amount of medical supplies that we brought with us to four health posts that we built.


There was a whole lot more, but it sounds like I'm bragging.  Sorry.  But we are proud of the things we've done here, and there is a lot of stuff going on. I look forward to having some time to elaborate in the next few days with some details on current events.  

And frankly, it's not all completely successful.  
There are many challenges.  (That's why we celebrate the good stuff!)  We are having to redirect a major water well project that has cost a lot, and not yet come up with adequate water.  

It's deep but not deep enough.  They are recommending that we go down 150 meters (450 feet! Yikes!)  to get to good water.  There are options ...

Water in this part of the world is hard to come by, and despite our track record of good results, sometimes you have to "readjust" your efforts.  We'll get there, but it takes time.

And it's not all hard work.  We have some fun too.
Thanks for listening.  More to come. 

P.S.  Fiona's arm is still hurting.  Not good.  She is wearing a splint.  You can draw your own conclusions ... we have a professional nurse on our team ... !