41 JUNE 2024 WorldWide Drilling Resource® by Jon & Chris Hansen, submitted by Tim Rasmussen Henry, Huberto, and I [Jon] were sitting at the dining room table discussing how some of the villages we drill in are so far away and the roads make it even longer. Next week, they will be working in a community about two and a half to three hours away, 85% of the time is on rough dirt roads. The drill operators have decided to stay there rather than driving five to six hours each day. The real difficulty for our crew is where to sleep and eat food (not to mention a shower after a sweaty day) when there are no restaurants or motels within two hours? We ask villagers to feed our people, which is usually good, but for us gringo’s not always so. Even some natives have food restrictions and take precautions. It’s seldom the food is a problem, but the handling of the food once cooked can be. Back to the discussion, Water for Life (WFL) has a friend in Guatemala, Geo (Geovanni) who is a for-profit water well drilling contractor we have helped and who has also helped us. Huberto mentioned his company also works out of town and they have a bus to house their crew. We called Geo and he told us they are working in Poptun on a community well and the bus was there. We are located 20 minutes away, so off we went to check out the bus (see picture). We were impressed with their old school bus (with both Guatemala and Massachusetts license plates) and we immediately started thinking about how much better we could improve on it with solar panels, attach a canopy, outside shower, chairs with a barbeque pit! The outcome is we would like WFL to consider this as an option for our problem and make it more comfortable for the workers. Plus, the crew will be more efficient in getting the wells drilled. We spent two hours watching Geo’s crew and were able to understand how and why they were rehabilitating this well. It happens to be the same issue some WFL wells encounter (I will cover this at a later time.) Hi y’all! [Chris] As it happens somewhat frequently here, we had unexpected, early evening visitors yesterday. Three ladies, led by our friend Patty, came by after a long workday for them, to present us with Thank-Yous and a gift. It took me awhile to understand who the other ladies were and why they wanted to show their gratitude. Back in 2011, on my first trip here and Jon’s second, all of us volunteers - dental, medical, and drilling - from the U.S. sat at long tables against the back wall of the school’s large cafeteria. We had a young lady, what they refer to as an “industrial” student, whose job it was to prepare and present food for our table of drilling folks. She was one of a number of young people from local villages, who were basically charity cases and worked for six years to earn a high school education. Once they start taking classes, they continue to work in the kitchen or handling other necessary maintenance work on the campus. ICAP (English translation is Central American Institute of Public Administration) is a faith-based technical institute, off the beaten path, in an area called Las Lajas. It was a blessing that after eating a vegetarian diet consisting of a lot of black beans, which I really like in moderation, and other interesting and sometimes unidentifiable but okay food, and much tasty fresh fruit, we were assigned Sandra. That girl could cook! We all found ourselves eating with gusto the delicious meals she prepared for us. Fresh-squeezed orange juice in the morning with our breakfast and well-seasoned rice dishes in the evening. For three weeks or so, we were anticipating our meals with joy, until one of the volunteers shared Sandra’s story. It was not unlike others we’ve heard since, but it was new to all of us Americanos. She had finished her teacher’s/maestra program and had a job waiting for her in Guatemala City, but had to work off the tuition to receive her certificate, a requirement for her job. Said job was being held for her, but had a time limit. So as we have all done numerous times, we pooled our resources and presented enough funds to pay off her tuition and extra to help her get to, and get settled in the city. A tearful and joyous young lady accepted our gift and thanked us all effusively. Imagine our surprise the next morning, in the cafeteria, when our breakfast of beans and eggs arrived and we learned Sandra was on a bus to the city! I don’t want to disrespect the time and efforts of those who provided meals for us before or after Sandra, but wow, that girl had a gift! And, it was she and her sister we enjoyed reconnecting and visiting with last night. What a joy! We shared stories, laughter, and hugs, and once again, I could see God’s love manifested in our time here. Blessings to all and happy birthday to our lovely granddaughter in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Tim If you would like to help, contact Gary Bartholomew at 509-939-1941 WTR michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com
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