Continued challenges, but success in all

We don't get many breaks it feels. We need a vacation soon. All the other volunteers are now having their parents visit or going to meet friends and family in Europe. We're getting a bit jealous.

The wells are coming along. We had a chance to finish everything in a few days but then came the hang-ups. The pictures below are largely of a device called a chevalement, used for lowering cement rings into a well. Unfortunately, the operators were not experienced and stripped the gear system while lowering the first ring into the well at Logogya. Literally 3 seconds after the close-up shot of the man getting ready to being lowered into the well was taken. He fell 4 meters before the gears locked in preventing him from falling 9 meters into the well. That's why we have hardhats.

It was a heartbreaking setback. A week after the incident, we'll be starting again at Logogya this Monday. The rain is really here. We have a small window to lower the cassion rings, or it will become too dangerous. Everything can be so dramatic here...

One wonderful success story is the well that was rearranged at Watatoufou (see the picture above). They have just a bit of work left.

On a lighter note: We have a chicken that was gifted by the women's group we work with. I built a chicken house. It lays lots of eggs, so that's good.

On a downer, the kiln for the filters is damaged due to a storm that came in and ripped off the roof for the kiln. This project could take up all of our time if we're not careful. So much needs to be done, and we keep having this amazing setbacks with the project.

The other setback I personally had was my first encounter with malaria. It definitely hits you hard, but I understand how Cameroonians can treat it like the common cold. As long as you can identify it and have the means to take medicine for it, it just is debilitating. I would almost rather have malaria than the flu or food poisoning, which makes you vommit constantly. By the way, I had food poisoning yesterday.