Sunday, October 9, 2016

Well?


We're excited about the near-completion of our school's latest project -- a well to provide our school with a reliable source of water.  Despite Nicaragua's reputation as "The Land of Lakes and Volcanoes", and our Lake Nicaragua (the largest lake in Central America), water availability is by no means universal or reliable.

NCA International generally has city water service for approximately 4 hours per day, usually from about 5:00-9:00 a.m.  During this time we do our best to fill our 5 water tanks (with total combined capacity of 7,500 gallons) and water plants and the soccer field as much as is possible.  Once the street water is turned off by the water company, we have generally enough water to get through the day.  However, some days (more frequently during the dry season -- January-May), we only get 1-2 hours of water service, and the water pressure is sometimes too low to fill our tanks.  These are the days that by the end of the day our school suffers the most.  Toilets won't flush, no one can wash their hands, and everything feels gross.  As you can imagine, we are very excited about having our own reliable source of water!

Why does the water company turn off the water?  I have heard multiple theories, including water rationing, insufficient infrastructure or pump capacity, but my belief is that it is in order to cut losses.  In Nicaragua there are many houses with illegal water connections (no water meter or secondary connections that bypass the meter), which means that whenever the water is turned on, the utility is losing money.  It is actually financially advantageous for them to turn the water on for a few hours a day, allow the paying clients to fill their large capacity water tanks, and then turn it back off to mitigate losses to leaks and nonpaying clients.  The end result: poor people (and other illegal connections) get very limited service, and people who can afford tanks deal with the inconvenience as best as possible.

Like videos?  Here's a video of the well-drilling equipment.  Although the equipment appears to be from a couple centuries ago, it has managed to drill a 12-inch hole to the final depth of 750 feet using an impact bit.  We expect to install the casing and 5 HP pump within the next 2 weeks.

Christmas in September?


On September 24 we had to run some errands, and were surprised to find that at least two of the largest stores in Nicaragua already have their full Christmas displays out (3 months before Christmas)!  Perhaps because Nicaragua doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving or Halloween, we get to enjoy living in what some have called "the opposite of Narnia" -- where it's always Christmas and never winter (originally observed because in past years, the government left lighted Christmas tree decorations up year-round throughout the city).