Mission Mombasa: Water flows again at Masai Corner

Talk about an incredible last 2 days. While I know I should not be, I nonetheless stand in utter amazement of the events of the past 48 hours for the families in and around R4C's newest church development project in South Coast, Kenya.

As many of you know the well pump has not functioned properly for the past seven months here, since it was last repaired and put back in the borehole. Well, I came back to this emerging church with the expressed intent to see if the well could be repaired or make plans to drill a new well. To accomplish this goal would take a decent-size air compressor, which I had been unable to find anywhere in the Mombasa coastal area. So yesterday was the day we had planned to pull out the hand pump. This process is actually made quite easy to accomplish if one has a large tripod, a good winch and plenty of wire rope. However, possessing none of these tools at our disposal, we resorted to the tried-an-true method of grunt labor – to yank the pipes out of the earth, one 10 ft. section at a time, actually with the aid of an India Mark II hand pump removal kit – which we did have – this was not all that hard. It's just a bit slow and tiring.

Once we got the pump out and took it apart, we could see that the seals were damaged beyond any known usefulness. So, before setting out to return to Mombasa I decided to first get a rope to determine the water depth. Since none was available that was long enough, Pastor Chondo told me to hop on the back of his motor bike and he would take me to the nearest “bush convenience store”. Well, as we are driving off of the R4C Church property we passed a large children's home and way in the back of the property I notice a very large truck-mounted drilling rig. After getting the necessary rope I asked Pastor to take me back to that children's home so we can talk to the driller. As we are driving onto the complex I spot a large semi-truck and trailer with a very large air compressor resting on it. It is not even being used, since they are mud drilling. So, I ask the drill foreman if we can hire them to develop our well with their air compressor. He calls his boss and hands me the phone. Right there we made a deal for him to come to Masai Corner, first thing the next morning and “blow out” our well casing. We would first have to put our discharge pipes back down the hole, so that he can just connect to the top with his air hose. So, while Pastor Eric and his team mobilized to place the pipes Justin and I set off for Mombasa to see if we could find replacement seals for the pump. Surely one can begin to see the hand of God in all of this!

As it turns out, none of the predictible places that sell hand pumps has any seals to fit our pump. In fact they don't even have any pumps at all in stock, as we even tried to just buy a new pump, regardless of make and model. Finally after being sent from one to another all over Mombasa, we are finally advised to go to a particular place, that the person directing us is not even sure of the actual name. Getting close to the prescribed location, and finding nothing resembling a pump sales store, we ask some gentlemen along the way for some assistance. As is typical, rather than try to direct us, he hops into our car and leads us along to the proposed location. By now it is getting on towards 5 pm, when many of the service stores will close. Finally a gentleman comes to the counter and we ask him (through the burgler bars) if he might sell replacement seals for this pump that Justin holds up for him to see. Yes, says he, we do have them. How many do you need? You gotta be kiddin' me? OK, I'll bite, we'll take four – so we can have two spares. He leaves and comes back in a few minutes with four rubber seals. We remove one of the broken seals and try one of the new ones, it is too small and not even the same shape. He says that he might have a seal that matches better in a kit that he sells. So again he leaves and soon returns with a box. In the box are a variety of rubber O-rings, gaskets and seals. Two of them look very similar to ours. We try one. It fits! Bwana asifiwe!

As we get to the car I ask Justin how far to Doshi Mechanical Equipment Sales, where we bought some pipe fittings on Monday and I expect they will present the best opportunity to stock the specific fitting to match our pump discharge pipe to the drillers air pipe. Justin tells me it is not too far, but it will depend on traffic, as we only have 5 minutes to 5 PM, by my watch. Amazingly we cross a major portion of downtown Mombasa and encounter very little traffic. We arrive at Doshi and hurry inside. As we step to the counter, the doorman closes the door behind us. It seems we will be the last customers of the day and of course they have our part.

Okay, back to reality. We still have another ferry crossing, but by this time we don't really care if we do have another long wait. We simply enjoyed a wonderful conversation about how God had put so many pieces together this day in this tapestry He calls life. It reminds us of how He so often simply takes care of some seemingly minute events, particularly when they add up to something as big as working to provide safe drinking water once again to a thirst community. But the real beauty is that He can surely accomplish ALL of this without our help.

After a good night's sleep for me, Justin put in an 8-hour shift at his regular job, maintaining a water treatment plant and boilers for a resort hotel on the Indian ocean, at Diane Beach, near Ukunda. I picked up Justin and we headed off to Masai Corner with intent of cleaning out the well with the air compressor and then placing the pump, with the new seals back in place. We arrive around 9:15 am and notice that the air compressor has not yet set up near the well. I call the drill boss man and he tells me they have once again encountered rock at the children's home and had to revert back to hammer drilling, using the air compressor. He tells me that he will call me in the evening to let me know when they might be able to develop our well. With my time in South Coast running short, I decide to visit the driller to see what things are looking like for his well drilling project. When I arrive I see that the compressor has been moved into place and connected to the drill rig, but they have not started any drilling. So I tell Samuel that I guess he will not be able to develop our well today. To my amazement he tells me that yes they can develop our well, and can come right away if we have the money and if we have the diesel that he needs to run the compressor. I tell him that if he will loan me 2 jerry cans that I will hop into town and get the diesel, while he sets up the compressor over by our well.

So, to finish this story – by now you have to know that it has a VERY HAPPY ENDING...I will cut to the chase. We procured the diesel fuel and returned, hooked his compressor hose to our discharge pipe. Samuel's men then proceeded to engage the compressor and dirty water shot high into the air. After about one hour of blowing and stopping for periods of time (to allow the well to recharge and the particles to settle, Samuel said the well was clean – including the screens. He said that this was a very good well with lots of water. While we knew that, it was good to get his expert confirmation. Actually this well is 155 ft. deep and the water level is only 75 ft, down. Thus, there is 80 ft. of water, including 70 ft. above the screens. What is amazing about this is that the well that Samuel is drilling at the children's home is already 105 meters deep (350 ft.) and they have yet to hit any water and are now into rock. True, they are about 15 - 20 meters higher in elevation, I would estimate. But even the hand-dug well at Corner Masai, which is much closer to the children's home property and maybe about 5 meters lower in elevation, encountered water at only 85 ft.

Within 1-1/2 hours Justin and his team replaced the hand pump and 140 ft. of pipe. After pumping for less than two minutes, water came gushing out as the team and small crowd that had gathered cheered and hooted. All the men enjoyed washing off the mud and sweat in the cool clean water. We all praised God for another glorious day, as water returned to Corner Maasai (as the locals call it).

Bwana asifiwe!