During my quick trip to Guatemala in October, I had a chance to check on the progress that is being made on repairing our equipment for the coming drilling season. During the season, we are continually faced with the prospects of breakdowns and the resultant delay to our drilling progress.  Our drillers come to drill and when they have to stop and make repairs, it is disappointing to them and to us and to the villagers who are waiting.

To address this issue, we decided to hire someone to focus on repairs to our rigs and trucks during the off-season.  After some discussion, we decided to employ Edgar Lopez.  We have known Edgar for several years and have taken our machines to him for repair many times.   He and his wife and family live about one hour away from Poptun toward Santa Elena.  He has a small shop beside the road in the village of San Juan. 

He is familiar with our work and very supportive of our efforts to help his people.  One of our workers, Jon Hansen and his wife Chis, stayed with him while Jon drilled a well several years ago. While the well is one of the few on private property, when the villagers of San Juan have no water, as sometimes happens in the dry season, Edgar’s well and water is available to all.  He pays the electricity for the well and allows people to get what they need.

At the end of last year drilling season, Jon had a long list of things that needed to be done to the various trucks.  The list was not complete, but did have many things that needed to be addressed. Edgar and Berny had been working their way through the list all summer, and I could check on the progress they were making. 

One of the rigs, the oldest one, needed several things.  One of the necessary repairs was to address the severely worn bushings and shafts on the sheaves that guide the cable for raising the derrick.   They were worn so much and the grooved wheels wobbled so much that there was a real danger of the cable jumping out of the groove and jamming in the pulley. It had to be fixed.
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Edgar brought another of our trucks he had been working on and drove the rig to his place with Berny and I following.  When we arrived, Edgar immediately began working on it.  It was so hot that I could barely keep my hand on bare metal in the sun, but Edgar climbed up the mast and removed the parts.  Then Berny and I took the parts and headed on up the road to Santa Elena to find a machine shop to make the repairs. 
 
We went to one shop but it was closed and so went to another.  They looked at the work and said they could have it tomorrow. Berny asked if they could please do it today and they told us to come back in four hours.   That was good and we went to lunch and then off to a village nearby to check on the pump that was working there. 
At about 2:30 we came back to the shop and waited a bit till the machinist was finished. The new bushings were in and the new shaft machined to the proper diameter.  We paid the money, about $150 US dollars, and were on the way back to the shop so Edgar could reinstall the sheaves and get on to other projects. 
One more task completed in the list to prepare for the coming season.  We hope we will be able to put our volunteers to work drilling immediately when they come and not be delayed by having to make repairs.  If you have an interest, contact us. We can put you to work.  Perhaps on our new rotary rig or maybe on the old cable rig.  It will be up and working when you get there.  
 
 
  

Used with permission, World Wide Drilling Resource
 
Berny Leonardo and I were on the way back from Santa Elena on Friday morning.  We went to have a meeting with the president of the church organization who owns the land where our facilities are located.  We have a good relationship with them and after a good conversation we headed back to the shop which was about 2 hours away.
 
There are stretches of the highway south of Santa Elena which are straight,  the road is good and there are no tumulos (speed bumps). This is a normal sized two-lane road with shoulders a few feet wide on either side.  Speeds of 60 or more are entirely reasonable despite the speed limit signs.  Trucks, especially the big ones, find the speed limits as merely suggestions I think.  In short, everyone is driving as fast as they dare.  There are also a few motorcycles, some fast and some slow and occasionally one with several people on it.   I have seen a family of five on a small motorcycle and no one takes much notice of it.
 
Berny was driving the crew cab Mitsubishi pickup and we were going about 60. There was a large truck was coming the other way at probably the same speed.   When the truck passed, the gust of the wind from the truck blew the hood open. I was talking to Gary on the cell phone when this happened. 
In an instant we could not see anything and there were a bits of glass flying about.
 
When the hood opened, I could not see anything, but Berny,  who is fairly short, was able to scoot down and see under the hood  through broken windshield.  He guided us safely off the road onto the shoulder.  We got out and pulled the hood down to survey the damage. The hood was bent where it folded back and the roof of the cab had a dent in it from the hood. The windshield was shattered and the wipers twisted. We were able to find a couple of pieces of wire and rope to tie the hood down and we continued on our way. Driving a bit more slowly now. 
 
About 20 minutes down the road, we came to a mechanic shop beside the road owned by our friend Edgar. We drilled a well in his yard that serves his small community when the main source for the village goes dry.  He was not working on anything much and was able to drop his job and help us.
 
We found the whole latch mechanism was ripped off.  It had been loose for a while and the areas around the bolts had work-hardened and become brittle.
Edgar was able to weld the latch back into place, straighten the hood hinges so the hood closed properly.  It took him about 2 hours and we were ready to go. 
 
As we came into Poptun, I asked Berny to pull into the shop where they might have a windshield. Berny said it would probably have to be ordered from Guatemala City, but I said we ought to get it ordered then.  The folks at the shop checked and sure enough they had the one we needed.  They offered to install it right then for a total of 140 US dollars. 
 
I told them to go ahead and do it.  They got right onto it and in about another hour we had a brand-new windshield.  I also bought two new wiper blades.  Good as new.  Well almost, if you don’t count the dents. 
 
Later I found out that several folks had noticed the loose hood, but no one had really checked it out to see what was wrong.  Nothing had ever happened before. Lesson learned.  Deferred maintenance is not maintenance at all.  
          

​Getting the mud rotary through customs took a month but some of the 

longer time was expected because of the holidays around Christmas and 

New Years.  Our volunteer cable driller from Ohio had offered to haul 

the rotary from Iowa to the port in Florida but had some heart issues 

which postponed the transport.  We're hoping he can come drill but he 

still doesn't have the Doctor's clearance.  Another driller has leukemia 

but is in Guatemala.  He will be here Tuesday to help with some pump 

work then cut the box end off a drill stem and weld on a new box end.  

Another driller just had hiatyl hernia surgery and he's hoping he can 

still come. The devil has been jabbing us and we appreciate your 

faithful prayers.


We have met our goal of getting the rotary here and determining the best 

approach for it's continued work here.  An air compressor will be 

necessary and a system to drill a larger surface hole to enable us to 

install a temporary 6" pvc or steel casing.  In 3 of the wells the 

drilling fluid came up the hole to usually between 6' and 15' then then 

fluid and cuttings went horizontally.  We were able to clean the hole 

sufficiently to go deeper and not get stuck.  The pdc bit is awesome and 

really makes hole rapidly in this limestone.


4 of the wells were in very remote villages where the crew sometimes 

stayed overnight, 1 well was at a health clinic at the edge of a larger 

town, and the last one was in a little barrio with no water source at 

the edge of Poptun.  The wells were 60' - 140' with plenty of water.  

This 8 working days represent 8 weeks of cable tool drilling.  We're now 

in the process of cleaning the wells by pumping, then we'll set hand 

pumps in all except the clinic well which will get a submersible.


We appreciate your support and we're accomplishing things we could not 

have otherwise done:  The diesel tender truck with 20' flatbed is on 

it's way from Tacoma presently.  We're able to hire two local men to 

learn pumps and drilling.  We believe we have 2 Godly men and we are 

blessed by that.  We are able to replace all 6 tires on the drill one by 

one.  They didn't look too bad but are so old they're really checked and 

weak.  The first one blew as we drove through the river going to the 

first village.  We've put steel shelving in the North storage container 

which will prevent those termites from eating our shelving.  We've 

leveled a spot for another container and it may be here this week.  We 

purchased some new equipment for producing bushings for the hand pumps 

and Larry is doing an excellent job there.  We purchased 1,000' of 250 

psi, 4" pvc and that's really saved a lot of time and hassle.  Usually 

we buy 5 or 10 pieces at a time.  I know there's more but that's what I 

think of.


We appreciate you!


Gary, Angie, & WFL

​October 19 dawned clear and bright and cool. The temperature is was really warm for this time of year in Spokane.  This was the day Water for Life loaded the container for shipment to Guatemala.  There had been a slight mix-up as to the date, but we had our volunteers ready on the Friday morning.  The truck driver had been instructed to go to Lincoln Blvd in the valley, but he got in contact with us and we corrected the instructions to come to Lincoln road.  He arrived about 10:15 am.
Without any delay, the workers began loading the pallets of materials for shipment. Over the years, we have gotten better about having things packed in pallets and staged for the loading, and all went smoothly.  There were no glitches or problems. Rod Bartholomew operated the forklift and several men inside the container with a pallet jack made fairly quick work of the first part of the loading. 
Our driver this year, Terry Ottman of Moses Lake Washington, was interested in what we are doing and I talked to him awhile about our project and gave him some details and insight into the varied mix of material being placed in the container.  He was happy to be helping to do something for folks who do not have access to clean water.  Being able to converse with the driver is a treat for us.  Often the drivers are from other countries and speak very little, if any English.   Also, we have had concerns about the driver’s ability to drive as we have watched them try repeatedly to position the truck at the loading dock or the gate to the shop.  Not this year.  Terry was obviously very skilled with the truck and had no issue following our directions and placing the trailer precisely where we needed it to be. 
The loading took about 3 hours.  The shipping company allows two hours, but three hours is about the usual time it takes.  Handling the casing pipe and the thousands of feet of galvanized and plastic pipe takes a little while because each pipe must be handled by hand and placed securely in the container. 
Finally, all was completed and the doors closed and the seal attached.  Terry was confident he could make it to the dock in Seattle by Saturday and we would not miss the in-gate deadline for making the ship.   The ship, MSC ANZU, was at that moment, heading for Oakland harbor for loading containers bound for Seattle.  There was plenty of time, but there was also time for things to go wrong. Ships get delayed. Trucks can be delayed. Things happen.  Once the cargo is out of our hands, issues can occur which can throw our plans completely askew.  
We trust the Good Lord as our shipping agent and we all bowed our heads and sent up a prayer for safety for Terry and for our precious cargo, bound for the highland jungle of Guatemala.  Thank you to all our donors and friends.   

​I visited with Wes who owns a truck and equipment dealership in Lind, WA 
when we decided to shop for a diesel truck with air brakes and 20' 
flatbed.   He was especially interested that WFL is a faith based 
ministry.  Yesterday he told me they have a very good truck (mechanical, 
not electronic) that has a 16' flatbed. They will lengthen the frame and 
put a 20' on it after the Fall planting rush.  He wants to gift it to 
us.  With all he's doing he may need a little money.

God is to be praised,


Gary

Jay Gallagher just returned from a visit to Guatemala as a volunteer for Water for Life.  He came down for about 3 weeks and stayed very busy with many jobs that need doing at the shop and in the field.  Jay comes from Belle, Missouri where he operates Custom Pump and Well Drilling.

He became interested in Water for Life as a result of an on-line forum sponsored by the National Ground Water Association and  reading about us in this journal and visiting our booth at NGWA conventions.  This was his third trip as one of our volunteers.  Each visit has been a little bit longer as he has found more and more things where his talents can be useful.

Jay is an excellent detail man and has done a lot of pump repair and refurbishment in villages where the pumps have failed or are failing.  He maintains a log of what he has done and helps us keep track of jobs and sites that need attention. This is a never-ending task as we drill more wells.  We now are at 113.  

I asked Jay for some observations from this year’s season.  He said that there were lots of unexpected repairs and problems, but one by one, each one was dealt with and the whole project moved forward.  Unusual things happened.  He blew out a tire on one of the Ford trucks and the truck caught fire, but it happened right in front of a big truck shop where help was available.  The tire blew and caught fire because a brake stayed engaged.  Jay got the truck towed and a few hours and a new brake job later, he was back on the road again.

He met some nice folks in Rio Dulce who operate Casa Guatemala. This is a school for kids with about 200 to 300 people living on site. The school is on the river and can be reached only by boat.   They do not have grid power and can use a generator for only about 90 minutes each day. All the rest of the power is solar.  Jay was able to survey their water system and give them some advice and gave them another pump to hold in reserve for future problems.  Water for Life made a good friend in Rio Dulce. 

Through Jay, Greg Evans of Lefty’s Drill Service of Crane, Missouri had donated a used pump hoist. During his spare time, Jay managed to get the hoist installed on the Ford truck  and started sorting the hydraulic lines out.  This second pump service truck will be a real blessing to us.   The other truck is a cab-over Isuzu.  It is good for highway use, but for many of the roads, it is simply not suitable.
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Jay is planning on coming again next year and perhaps will extend the time he is with us.  He sees the need and enjoys making a difference in the lives of people who otherwise would not have access to clean water.  He extends the invitation to others to come and help.  There is a lot to do, the food is good, the people are friendly, the work is hard, but it is very rewarding.