It’s been a while since I have been able to put finger to
keyboard, (pen to paper). I would like to inform you of the fulfillment of
my promise to take a skill to the mission field. During my first class CHE, I
asked our director Barrie Flitcroft, if there was one class that
above all others is needed in the field. He told me the greatest need is
repairing pumps. Statistically in Africa 200 of every 300 pumps don’t work.
Even the heartiest India Mark II Pumps, if pumped round the clock by a line of
women with pots on their heads, will break in 6 months. The U.N. and other NGOs
(Non-Government Organizations) will drill wells all over Africa for about ten
thousand dollars per well hole. But when the pump breaks, no one in the village
knows how to fix it. Then someone else comes close by and drills another
well. It yields the same health and wealth results for the villagers, if
you can repair nearby wells. Now women, who had to take a quarter of their day
to fetch water for their villages from a populated river, can go to the local
village pump again and get cold clean water. If you teach a responsible
villager pump repair, they can handle any usual breaks from then on, in theory.
Well, I prayed about it and went for it – the pump repair class.
My experience of being on Equip’s campus at Providence
Farms is always that of entering a secret sanctuary, or fortress of solitude. I
arrived at 5:00 Sunday and was ushered into the sugar-white buildings that are
kept Tillie Flitcroft -clean ß(top standard of
cleanliness) and treated to the most delicious country food all week.
You can in your spare time walk about in the green horse pastures or trek
through the woods. The projects’ experiments dot your vision. There are always
questions to be asked of one bush-invention or the other and there is always
someone around happy and knowledgeable to answer questions. Many of the
inventions and projects have been reproduced back here at home, such as a
rooftop garden pot and a tippy-tap (bush hand washing station). In Equip’s
large supply of missionary literature I found and created a permaculture garden
and a rabbitry for farming rabbits. I want to add a barrelponics system when I
can.http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/Travis/Barrel-ponics-Manual.PDF
In Equip’s classes you learn a lot through the week, and you
can also learn much from the other missionaries and development workers. I am
now completely skilled in eight major pumps found most commonly in
third world countries: India Mark II, Bush
Pump, Afrodev, Canzee/Tara, Wheel Pump, Direct-action Pump,
and Pitcher
Pump. We started off learning the basics of how a pump works and
familiarizing ourselves with the names of all the pump parts and fixing tools.
Then we went down and one at a time took apart each pump and
put them back together again. This took all of the first day, then while we the
students were at dinner that night, the instructors Keith Larrimore, Lou
Bradbury, and Harold Bracken broke each pump in a field related way. The second
day comprised of fixing each pump. Remember we learn from our mistakes, and I’d
say the most was taught on this day. Then once we had fixed all the pumps
without the instructors’ guidance, our final challenge was a special break on
the India Mark II, the most rugged, most commonly found pump, which
incidentally is the hardest and most dangerous to work on. This one can pump
water from up to 200 ft. deep. Pulling it up in ten foot pipe sections, we had
to lift only 65ft, yet the weight of the steel was so enormous no one man
can do this and not without vises and C-wrenches. It takes three men to repair
the pump. In this case scenario of the special break, the riser main had been
disconnected from improper installation and the cylinder was hanging by the MS
rod alone, which is very easy to drop down the well and then you must go
“fishing”. In this one the instructors showed us an easier way to lift the
pumps out of the ground, using pulleys and a tripod vs. the old method of three
men, a pair of C-wrenches and a vise clamp.
After this we covered well sanitation and water
testing. Then it was time to say goodbye to all the other missionaries and go
home, fully knowing how to repair all types of pumps. I got out of the class on
Friday and on Saturday I fixed my brother’s back yard Pitcher Pump. Using an
old innertube tire piece, I made a fully functional foot valve, the old one
having rotted out and broken the vacuum, allowing the pump to suck air instead
of water. I feel fully prepared to take on a pump out in the bush… just let me
get some tools first.
- Phil 4:13 “I can do all
things through Christ who strengthens me.”
In Christ,
David Greene
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