Six Days in the Life of a Well Driller

Towards the end of August I wrote this post, Drilling for Water. In it I explain that NGF, our home church in Florida had donated enough money to drill one well. I chose Barrio Oriente for two reasons. The first reason is because families in Oriente only get water to their houses once every eight days or less and then only a pila full. The other reason is that our friends Allan and Nicole live there and are starting a new church and we felt this would be a good way to help them and the community.

There was a huge challenge to this project though. The well site was inaccessible by truck. No problem I am told, we'll use oxen.

Day 1,
We spend all day getting the rig and our Go and See Ministries trailer up to the well site.

The drill rig being towed in with oxen.

Day 2,
By noon, with the help of Tim Nelson, we have the rig set up, mud pits dug, Bentonite mixed and circulating and we begin drilling making, good progress for the first 40 ft .

Job site.

Day 3,
On day 2 we had found that standing all day in the hot sun was uncomfortable and so we bring our own portable shade.

Ben, operating the rig...in the shade

Day 4,
On day 3 we found plastic buckets turned up side down as chairs practical, but less than relaxing and so on day 4 we make a vast improvement to our union breaks, camp chairs.

Alexis mixing Bentonite, Trey supervising perched on bucket.

Thomas on break.

Day 5,
On day 4 we had  roasted "chorizos" on sticks over a fire our boy scout had helped build, but by day 5 we had moved up to gourmet hamburgers cooked over an open fire using the rusty lid of a 55 gallon drum as a frying pan ingeniously placed on a stand of green wooden stakes which wouldn't burn, a contribution from our Honduran watchman who had obviously done this a few times before.

The Men of Oriente and my crew.

Day 6,
The next logical step in getting really comfortable on our work site was to bring in a Coleman stove. That way we could cook fried egg sandwiches and beans for lunch.

Another great meal.

In the end our job site became very comfortable. The men from Oriente who would spend the night guarding the equipment found our trailer to be a great place to hang out during the evening rains and I suspect that they even slept in it instead of under their blue tarp tent. All in all it was a most enjoyable week; and for me, it was one of those unforgettable experiences that men live for. Machinery, the great outdoors, good food, good natured joking, good weather and good company. Having my sons, Ben and Thomas, working with me and being part of this was awesome. Having Trey, who we have come to love like a son, there too was especially cool. Alexis, my "ayudante" quickly fit in with us and put up with our constant teasing. We kept telling him that he was going to turn into a Gringo, "bien gordito" if he wasn't careful, mostly because he would eat so much for lunch that we were pretty sure he was gaining weight rapidly. Our mantra quickly became, "When you're __________ (fill in the blank i.e. tired, broke down, bored, stuck, etc.) eat!" This approach to everything never failed us.

The boys with new crew member Ahnalise lowering the test pump.

In the end, we drilled to 180 ft and put casing to about 75 ft. We were really unsure if the well was producing water or not, but as we began to bail the water from the well, we found that it was almost impossible to make any progress...a very good sign. We finally were able to get electricity run to the well and ran a submersible pump for several hours without pumping the well dry.

Thomas and Trey measuring GPM.

As of right now I am waiting on a trailer mounted air compressor to finish developing the well with. We will use it to blow all the water, or as much as we can, from the well in order to get out all the silt and mud that would otherwise plug up the pump. I am pretty confident that Oriente is going to have water!