Has anyone ever heard of divining or dowsing? The method of finding water under ground using a tree branch or metal rods? Until today I was pretty skeptical about this method of choosing a location to dig a well. If you are going to invest a few thousand quetzals to dig a well wouldn’t you want a bit more of an expert opinion, like say from an engineer? Well we got the expert opinion from the engineer, and according to him this method is about 95% accurate. So today I woke up at 5 am to go out to our farthest community where the school has little to no water and meet with the diviner.
We have been very lucky to have the opportunity to work with an NGO called Agua para la Salud on a variety of water projects in our schools, so we were very excited to find out that they want to keep working with us with another grant proposal in September. Taking advantage of the fact that the engineer is staying in our site for a few weeks, we started visiting potential project sites this week. When we went out to Pachut, the farthest community in my municipality, the director of the NGO decided de una vez that he could fund the well that the school had been hoping for. So we began to scout locations. From him I learned that it is not just the metal rods that help find the water. One can also look for an area that is green all year and where wetland plants grow, such as elderberry (just part of the random knowledge I have accumulated by following him around). We also looked at where the other wells had been dug and mapped out the possible trajectory of the water running down from the mountain to the spring.
And then it was time to bring out the big guns. Except that they are not so big. When the man arrived today with two little pieces of bent metal sticking out of tubes from a regular ink pen I was surprised. I was also surprised that the man that carried these precious tools was not actually the community diviner. The diviner was sick and had been very reluctant to lend out his tools, claiming at first that he didn’t know where they were. I have to remember that trick next time I don’t want to lend something out. But they were finally found and the fact that it didn’t actually take a professional to operate them gave me great hope for my future in the well digging business.
As we tested out the rods around the school and nearby wells it was amazing to see that when they approached a well they began to cross. At a very shallow well they crosses so strongly that they began to turn all the way back towards the man that held them. When it was my turn to try near a well, I was very disappointed to find that they didn’t work, apparently because of my un-guatemalan-ness. I lost faith for a moment, but on a second attempt with more instruction on the proper angle at which to hold the pen tubes I had success! (see attached photos).
I am excited to say that not only did I gain a new skill today, but that we hope to begin construction next week on the well and if I am able to get funding we will be able to buy a pump and run water to a school that has never had it before! Then hopefully they will buy soap.
Here is a list of other random things I have learned recently that may or may not be useful in real life:
⇒ What to put in a pit latrine to combat odors: limestone, ash, tp
⇒ How many wheelbarrows make up 1 cubic meter of sand or gravel: 15
⇒ What to do with a baby if its head starts falling in from being vertical too much: hang it upside-down and dip it in water
⇒ How to cure a sore throat with marshmallows and coke: boil, then drink
⇒ How many inches are in a vara: 33 or 36, depending on which old-time king you favor
No comments:
Post a Comment