O'er the land of the free
Death is always a scare.
To think of dying is a scary.
But a death is part of life.
It's part of us. It's with us.
However, any human being is afraid of death.
We are in Malawi building a water filtration system to provide the town of Malangundi with clean water.
Primarily we're putting the water to the Malangundi School for the Blind in the health center that's down the hill.
Our disadvantage, since 1972 when this school was opened, official opened, the blind men have drained water from the river and treated water.
Also the health center is getting this really dirty water.
So diseases that are water born, say cholera, they drink the water and get the disease.
They go to the health center to get better, but the symptoms cause them to be dehydrated.
So they're drinking more of the bad water which is just making them more sick.
It's almost every year we have cholera.
We have a camp here, camping people who have been affected by cholera.
So because of the poor quality of water, cholera or water born diseases are always affected by this.
What we're trying to do is very basic and at the same time should be effective enough to provide clean water to drink for a school for the blind and a hospital nearby.
This water filter is very basic. It gets 99% of all the pathogens in the virus bacteria that needs to be removed.
But basically it's just a tank with sand and the sand is a particular diameter which is small enough to filter out most of the dirty water and the pathogens.
Get eaten by a bacterial layer that develops on top of the sand. It's called the shmushdaka layer. It's very fun.
It's basically just sand in a tank that when it goes through it's clean.
We have a relatively short time span for getting this project done so we really need to figure out what will work and figure out how to make it work quickly.
Like there are some things we need to get before we start off with other things and the later we get for example the sand and the pipes later we are with actually building the filter.
Everything is just a lot harder to come by here so that is going to be a difficulty but luckily the labor force is helping us out so hopefully we'll finish.
All right.
I want it to just be like a little bump.
The union.
The union.
So today is Tuesday so we have Tuesday and it's 3.15.
So we have rest of today until dark so it gets dark about 6. We have Wednesday and Thursday and Friday we're leaving and we don't want a chance coming out here.
So we only have two and a quarter more working days to finish everything which is very time crunched.
A lot of last week was going around and finding what we needed and we were prepping the hill and what we needed here but that can only go so far.
Because without the sand we can't do the filter and without the pipes we can't do the piping.
But it all came together today and it was really nice.
We got the pipe in.
We got a call about the pump. The pump is ready. We'll pick that up tomorrow morning along with the valves.
The sand should be here any minute so we can start rocking and rolling on the system.
Get everything put together and actually make it look like a water filtration system.
Take a break. We need bigger people in the back because there's not much weight in the front.
There's not much weight in the front.
The sand guys called and they're having troubles with their truck so it doesn't look like the sand will be here today.
We were supposed to have it here before we even got here.
Then it was supposed to arrive Monday and then it was supposed to arrive today and now it's supposed to arrive tomorrow so it just keeps getting pushed back.
The success of the system and finishing on time all depends on the sand.
It's so weird how you hear things like their conclusions and they're not conclusions.
Today is Wednesday. If the sand and the valves show up sometime before the end of the day and we might be able to make it by the end of tomorrow
and then catch our normal flights but we're considering a few of us staying an extra day just because I think we may need it.
Not being able to get sand is a killer.
We'd still have to wait until the end of the day for the sand to arrive.
When are you going to be here with the valves?
We'll see you then.
Thanks Will.
We went and we checked on the sand and we're trying to figure out another way to get the sand here, hire another truck or whatnot.
Let's try to get it here a little faster but the truck is still broken down.
Maybe it'll come by the end of the day.
That's what we've been using.
We got sand!
We finally got sand, filter material.
So we just got the sand and we want to start doing whatever we can to prepare to fill it tomorrow.
Tomorrow we have to clean it and fill the tank with it so that's all the activity.
So right now we're filling in the trenches so that we can walk easily up the hill.
That's the only thing we can do right now because all night the pump is going to have to fill the tank up at the top with water so we can clean the sand up at the top.
We don't have to wash the second layer.
We've got to clean the fine sand and that goes in that tank.
The biggest sand is going to go right into that tank without cleaning.
Two people here, everybody else is cleaning the sand.
We tested the system, it got all the way to here so this is the first time we're going to fill the tank with water.
The gravel is in, the first two layers of sand are all the way in and the big layer of sand is about a third down.
So five of us have decided to stay two more days.
Kelly and Hannah can't stay longer but that's okay, we don't need all seven of us to stay.
I think if five of us stay two more days, finish all the sand, test the system, train the operators, I think we'll be in good shape.
After two weeks of being here we're going back at the scheduled time.
It's really near completion right now so just cleaning the rest of the fine sand and then putting it into the filter and then testing the filter to see if everything's working and that none of our pipes are leaking.
So confident that the project will get finished when we leave.
We're going to finish that tank, all the fine sand.
Fine sand so lots of work but now it's to the right height so that one's done.
I'm not going to let you go.
I'm going to put my foot in here.
Chill out for a while.
Okay.
I didn't work.
I didn't work.
We're done.
So we put both sand, all the sand and both things.
Law finished?
All right.
Nice work.
Good job, good job.
So today we got all the sand in which is great.
We made it just in time, the moon's out, everything but both tanks are filled with water.
All we want to do tomorrow is test everything.
So my brain hurts but this is going to work out and it'll hopefully be done by tomorrow.
We'll be able to test everything.
All right, ready?
Three, two, one, zero.
Right now we're doing the bucket tests to make sure that the flow is at the speed we want it to be.
So 2.5 buckets per minute is going to be equally divided into both tanks.
And it is the last day and we're very positive that everything is going to work out.
Three, two, one.
That's perfect.
Okay, well this is the storage tank for the health clinic.
And that's one of the places, one of the tanks we're trying to fill with our water.
And just came down here, Sam jumped up on top of the pedestal to look inside the tank.
And we have water coming in from our treatment system.
So that means that we've got plenty of head pressure to get all the way up.
It's about 20 feet up in the air and fill that tank.
Which means we can fill the reverence tank or anything else that's that tall.
So it looks good, all the tests are coming out good.
We're gathered here basically to receive the water supply purification system.
The output from the tanks is estimated at between 12,000 to 20,000 liters a day.
And now that we have received this scheme, the issue of shortage of water is now history.
With this clean water, with this potable water, the clinic will now save well the general public.
The church here will save the general public.
And the school they are done there, the school for the blind, they will be assisted.
Very, very heavily.
We have been assisted by those good friends from America.
We need also to think of other people who might need our assistance, somewhere, somewhere, somewhere.
By destroying this water purification system, you have given us life.
And we cherish the life you have given us.
We promise, take care of it and we'll always remember it.
If a person stays in the house, he may think the way he is living is how other people are living outside him.
But go outside and see what the other people are living.
Sometimes you'll be shocked.
Thank you.
