Magara Drill Site

It is probably about time we explain why we will not be doing the project we had expected we would. We told you all about the soilet and how it should work and help the people here before we left America. However after getting to know the area and looking into sites for soilets, we realized that they would help some but would not solve the problem of unsafe drinking water. The rivers where villagers fetch their water are still full of contamination from animals, garbage, and washing. Thus we decided to skip to the next step that would solve many more problems by drilling a well. We have learned that the earth is an entire soilet in itself. When you drill down deep into the ground, you find water that has been cleansed and purified of bacteria and parasites by draining through layers of sand, clay, and mud, the same ingredients used in the soilet design. We have decided that drilling a well would have a much greater impact on the people than a soilet would.

Cutest little boy on the bus to Magara wearing Landon's hat

So we took a trip out to the village of Magara, near Lake Manyara to view a possible drilling site. We met with the Village Chairman Godfrey and explained to him what we would like to do. Spear has drilled near this area before so he was familiar with how to go about pulling this project off. We found that the area has high chances of finding a reasonably shallow water table, which is excellent for the Village Drill, and that a well here would serve more than 1,000 people! This was great news to us. Godfrey gladly showed us around the village including the current water source (a river fed by nearby waterfalls) and also led us to the proposed well site.  

The long walk to the river. One that hundreds of people make several times a day.

The river was a fair 15 minute walk from the most of the homes and supplied unclean water shared between people and animals. Throughout the day you would find hundreds of people walking here to fill there buckets, wash their laundry, and water their goats and cattle. 

A home in the Magara Village

This is the proposed site for the well with the Health Clinic in the background and the school in the opposite direction. It is surrounded by trees that indicate the presence of water, which is a really great sign.

This location will be very accessible to so many people, which will help to disperse the clean water throughout the village. 

A man from the village was extremely nice and brave enough to let Landon borrow his motorcycle for a quick ride down the road. I think he has been super deprived all summer of his motorcycle fetish! He was in heaven. :)

This is the huge market in the area held each Wednesday. Everyone set out under their tarps with plenty to sell from fruits and veggies to shoes and buckets. We stopped to have a soda with the Chairman before we left back to Arusha.