Dear WiB Supporters and Friends-
As I type this, I am on a puddle jumper flight from Sudan that smells like fish, is dodging thunder clouds, passed over one stop due to muddy runway and is now three hours long. Feeling good!
Three years ago the local Sudanese church leadership dreamt of bringing clean water to their people. These last two days I have seen with my own two eyes the rigs, the crews, and the first two wells we have drilled. More importantly, I have seen firsthand that patience, faith, and perseverance pay off! This is their work and their success!
But it took you all and your support to start it up!
Yesterday we visited an orphanage of 95 kids that are taken care of by widows. In order to get there we passed multiple workers still clearing land mines and passed over roads you would not believe. There has been a long-standing dispute between the nearby village and the orphanage over the one bore hole, and in January the dispute came to a boiling point. Machetes came out and the children and widows were threatened to never come for water again. As a warning, one of the widows was put into the hospital for a week. Since then, the orphans and widows have been bringing water up from the hole they dug by hand. It has been costing them $200 a month to haul the water and it is so dirty that they are going broke because they are spending all of their money on medicine. It goes without saying that the orphanage is tight on money, especially when they cannot even afford the $1,200 a year for mosquito nets to keep the children from contracting Malaria.
Thanks to Water is Basic and people like you, this orphanage has a well that provides clean water AND frees up money to fight malaria. Is there any better investment?Last night, the women fixed us a great dinner of roasted goat to thank us for this glorious water well. You really would have to experience the joy they showed to know how much clean water really matters. Long after we left they danced until after mid-night. The meal was really awesome, except the goat was a little leather-like!
In a week or two the place I showed you last time, (you know, with women waiting 3 DAYS 24 hours a day to fill one can with water) will be getting another well.
Do you remember that this is all run by Sudanese? Nobody in the country has ever heard of such a thing and they are still scratching their heads.
Pat-Drill, who we bought the rigs from, told us that it would cost about $17,000 per well (with the rise in gas prices and the drop in the dollar). Two weeks ago we thought we could get it down to $5,500. After drilling two wells and getting the villages to bring rock and sand, we have the total variable cost per well down to 4,305pds (Sudanese pounds are about 2 to a $1). Realistically, with total community involvement and remembering this is Africa, each rig will be able to complete a well per week. Add in the crew labor for the week and we now have a real cost of $3,000/well including labor. This is a real number.
Our crews are already working towards being self-sustaining, and to that end they have a contract to drill a well privately next week for $10,000.
A local song says that, “When Jesus says yes, no one can say no”!
As a perfect ending to this amazing story, I had the opportunity to preach on Grace yesterday and I opened with the story of our second well at the orphanage and the battle over water… The folks at the orphanage want to be sure that the people of the village (the machete wielding ones) come and use the new well. Now that is Grace! After we drill our 25th well we will have covered all of our initial costs (equipment, start up costs) and any more money that comes in will all be life saving water.
For about $160,000/year we can fully fund and sink 50 wells/rig/year. With our two rigs we currently have, that’s 100 wells a year. Best deal I’ve heard of in a long while.
Lets raise some money!
-Steve Roese
