The Well at the Orphanage

Here's the water truck. They've got to truck in all their water, get it up the hill, and then fill up the well. If you take a look at the deep ruts under the front tire, you can see why it's not as easy at it seems.


Once we actually got the truck up to the right spot, attempting to fill the well.


Unfortunately, the water isn't all that clean, but they do have a couple filters on it.


They spent about an hour trying to get the truck up the muddy hill. There was a young 13 or 14 year old kid grinding the gears, and dumping water out of the top of the truck making matters worse and worse.


We filled up Many Many Many wheelbarrows full of fill and rocks, fallen branches, and pretty much any other sheetrock, wood, or garbage that was available to build up enough dry material over the mud to get the truck up the hill. But then the connector to the hose kept failing. Half the water we finally got up the hill flooded back down before we could get it into the well. Just kind of how it goes in Mexico I guess.
Jesse, who'd been back and forth many times to oversee the work on the Soccer field, and has been working with Casa Hogar and other orphanages for a while now, had a pretty good angle on it. He said, you do the best you can, and try to leave your work in a place where it's at least finished in it's stage, so whoever comes next, can build off from what you've done. It's a great way to be, because some of the biggest bummers of volunteer work are the feelings of hopelessness, when you can't get something done, or it seems like your project will just fall back into disuse. Not to beat a metaphor to death, but it's easy to get stuck feeling like the work can't get done, and it'll all just keep sliding back down the hill. It's important to find something positive to hold onto, and build off of, to get even just one thing done.