This is a continuation of the story of new wells in Burkina Faso during Autumn 2020. We are not always successful in drilling wells. However, God continues to bless despite our frustrations and set-backs.
Myra’s Wells has been busy over the last three or four weeks. 8 new boreholes have been drilled. The story up to 24th October is on these two posts.
Week commencing 4th October 2020
Well commencing 18th October 2020
This is what happened during the next week.
Monday 26th October.
Kabore is the surveyor who does most of our work. There are two others – one of them lives in Bobo-Dioulasso in the west of Burkina Faso and Christine usually asks him to help when we drill in the more westerly areas.
Kabore was up early to go to Foulla near to Kaya (about 60 miles NE of Ouagadougou ). He arrived at about 9am and was all set to carry out the survey before the drilling crew arrived. However, there was a problem. The people who should have decided the area where we were allowed to drill, had not come to an agreement. This sometimes happens when there are different ethnic or religious groupings. Groups will object to drilling taking place in their part of the village. This is very sad because we are very clear that, wherever the well is sited, it MUST be open to everyone to use it.
The potential area was finally agreed at about 3pm. 6 hours of Kabore’s time wasted! So, he did his work and marked where he thought was the best place to drill.
Tuesday 27th October.
The drilling commenced watched by some of the villagers.
The hours passed; the borehole went deeper; but all that was coming out of the hole was grey dust. There were still people sitting on a bench hoping for water to replace the dust. These people have a cameo appearance at the end of this short video clip.
But, probably, 10 hours into the drilling, with the borehole 115 metres deep, the decision had to be made to stop. There were no prospect of finding water.
The team packed up the drill and back-filled the borehole. It is always disappointing when this happens. This is the scene as the drillers finished clearing up.
We cannot always be successful in drilling wells.
Wednesday 28th October.
Christine let us know the result first thing in the morning. We have decided that we will leave a second attempt until the new year. It is normal, if the first borehole is not successful, that we will try again in another location after another survey.
The drilling team moved on to Yabo so as to be ready for Kabore to arrive the next day.
Thursday 29th October.
Kabore set out from Ouagadougou to go to Yabo. At some point along the road, his car broke down. This meant that he only arrived at Yabo on Friday morning.
Friday 30th October.
Kabore let Christine know about the delay. He also said that he had had the same problem with the people not agreeing about where he could drill. Fortunately, this time, the mayor of the nearest town had intervened and Kabore could complete the survey in good time.
He also mentioned that the area was considered to be more dangerous than we had realised with the threat of terrorist activity. The hope was that the drilling team could complete the work in the one day.
There is a refugee camp in the village – people who have had to leave their homes further north. Please pray that they will not have to leave here and move somewhere else!
Christine asked for prayer about the drilling – and we passed on the request to a good number of our supporters. Thank you if you were able to pray with us. Here is the WhatsApp message that arrived at 18:16 pm:
Sometimes we have to learn patience. Borehole number eight is good!
Next steps.
We give praise for the water at Yabo and continue in prayer for a second attempt at Foulla, perhaps in the New Year.
Step 1
Over the next three weeks or so, we plan to fit pumps at the eight new wells. We may use a solar powered pump at Saatenga, together with a water tower and taps.
Step 2
A trainer will give training in the care and use of the pump at each new well. He will also establish well committees whose job will be to make sure that the villagers follow the training and maintain the pump.
Step 3
Then, God willing, we hope to try for five more wells a long way from Ouagadougou in the west of the country, mainly in the region known as “Cascades” (which means “waterfalls”).
We can’t always be successful in drilling wells
However, we can always be prayerful and we pray that the next batch will all be good and give clean water to the very needy people in Burkina Faso.
And we always remember to thank God for those wonderful occasions when drilling IS successful.
