Funny how the best thing going right now felt like it was going to be the end of the world a few months ago. The well project is going smoothly. Financially sound, run by motivated people, and with really little intervention by me. They got their act together. Binot Troure, the head mason aka Dombila’s guardian and handyman, found a new spurt of work ethic (probably because we’re paying him with our project money, but you know…) and with only 3 weeks into the project has finished the bulk of work on 19 village wells with his teammates Douda and Nema Diarra.
With all of the politics surrounding this project, I should probably take some time to explain exactly what we are doing. Most of the people in Dombila get their drinking water from traditional wells- hand dug with nothing but an old metal barrel and some logs at the top. This is problematic for many reasons. Erosion near the surface causes the wells to break and debree to continually fall in the drinking water source. Uncovered wells are also an invitation to dust, mud and other impurities. In addition, they are dangerous, as tales are told of toddlers who have fallen the dozens of feet down into the bottom of local wells. Kids get worms all of the time from drinking dirty water, which causes them not to be able to eat, thus being a direct contributer to our malnutrition problem. Our project is digging out the broken sections of the wells and reinforcing them with cement. We then cover the well with a metal door and teach the villagers how to hang their well bucket away from their well, how to shock treat their well after the construction work, and finally how to maintain clean drinking water with on-going with monthly cholrine threatments and clean water pulling practices. The deal was that Peace Corps would pay for the cement and metal if the community hitched up their donkey carts for transportation of materials, as well as finding their own suitable rocks and gravel for the project. The response of the community was enthusiastic and successful. The wells are turning out beautiful and functional- I’m so proud of these worker guys. Every time I go to see them at work they’ve gotten the entire surrounding community involved, even in the basking sun. And the villagers treat them like kings. I’ll meet them after work one afternoon and they’ll talk about how one concession killed a chicken for them and how one old lady was so happy she couldn’t stop dancing. I’m certain that once these wells are finished, we’ll be expanding the project after the rainy season.
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