04/16/2026
Soon after my last update, the water well digging commenced. Digging, with a shovel and a spud bar or other such tool, not drilling. The hole was too small in diameter to wield a pick. The loosened dirt and rock scooped into a bucket was hoisted aloft on a rope wrapped around a tree limb set astraddle two, x-braces made of tree limbs. A coworker cranked the load to surface, over the man’s head. (A hard-hat would not help if the rope parted.)
When they dug the latrine, rock was encountered at 50 feet. Stood to reason they’d hit the same rock strata at the same depth from a second location a hundred feet distant, and they did. Perseverance paid off when they hit water at 90 feet, but the digging wasn’t over. They had to dig into the water-bearing sand far enough to set a pump. The guy doing the work in the hole dug until he had to hold his breath to crouch and scoop the diggings.
Nuts.
If I applied for that job, they would say, “Yes, you tall, but too much fat. Need tall and skinny.”
I’ve used “brick by brick” in past newsletters. The well was bricked from bottom to top when finished. A truckload of bricks, sand, and numerous bags of cement, all of which were lowered, again, in a bucket, on a rope, brick by brick.
Nuts.
The work is done. They have water, a cistern, a stand for the cistern, a pump to fill the cistern.
The tile work in the structures is complete. Painters have sealed and painted the bathhouse and kitchen, inside and out. They are working on the house now. All that’s left is installing pavers on the entry to keep the mud at bay, and move in. Thank you, Lord!
The kids are well, save Tony and Faith’s youngest boy, Jeremiah, who is suffering from an ear infection. Though, he is on the mend.
Thank you. Please pray for them. Pray for us.
Dave Arp
Director, MtM
