We will finally have water in San Hilarión by Chris

Water tower built 14 years ago

We are very blessed to have a well in the house that we live in. Not all of the houses in our town have a well, which means the people carry buckets down to the river to fill them up with water every day.  

About fourteen years ago, our town built a wonderful new water tower in our town. Then, the project ran out of money and they were never able to add the pumps, filtration, plumbing into/out of the tower, etc.

The local economy is based on growing

 and milling rice. Rice needs lots 

of water to grow.  

The entire area has many aqueducts which divert the water from the nearby Sisa river before it dumps into the massive Huallaga river.

                                                                                                                                    This is how dry the land can get in the rice fields during our dry months (which is most of the year).

Open one of the valves to the aqueduct and voila!

So imagine the frustration 

when the crops in the fields all around you have water brought to them. Meanwhile, you and your family have to go to the river to bathe and to carry bucket loads of water back to your house multiple times per day.

  

Oh, I almost forgot, add in that the temperature is 100 degrees and when you step into the sun you can feel it burning your skin most of the day.  Now, you have a better picture of what the people here deal with on a daily basis.

That is why we had a huge celebration for the "breaking ground" ceremony for the new potable water system.

All of the local dignitaries were there.  They even invited us to say a small blessing over the "primera piedra" which translated means the "first stone".  

I had the opportunity to place a shovelful of cement into the hole to make the "primera piedra"

We tried to capture some of the joy of the day with a few photos.



The photo on the right are a few of the ladies in town that are super excited that they will not have to carry water in buckets for much longer.

Translation:
"A drop of water breaks a stone not by its force,
but by being constant.  That is why the triumphs
belong to those who never surrender.

Many of the children in the schools made signs to celebrate the day.









This project will take about another 8 months or so to complete.  Please pray for safe and speedy construction of this vital project for the health of the people in this area.