Field Trip

Thursday morning we had an all school field trip to the well digging project that David Reeves and Matt Hangen have been working on in Lassa Tchou. My two kindergardeners, Gabriel Reeves and Asher Miller, began the day excited and energized at even the idea of observing the well digging.

They were both so happy to be able to help out with the digging as well. Each student had an opportunity to help with the drilling and to help with the pulling as well.

This is a great shot of Gabe helping out-- you can even see the sediment coming up out of the drill pipe.

This is Asher drilling-- I think he preferred this part since when he tried at the rowing he fell

Even the teachers were able to try it out and see what difficult work it truly is. Here is Jacque rowing to help lift the drill up each time the drillers strike down into the ground.

In this photo I'm taking a turn drilling-- hard work!

You can see it's a pretty muddy job...

As we observed the current drilling site and learned about the process of this technique of well digging, an audience of children from a local school gathered.

After helping at the current drilling site we walked with Dave over to wells that they have already dug in the area. It was neat to see what the finished product would look like and what goes inside the pump.

After walking back to the car, I took a photo of Gabe and Asher revealing their exhaustion from the draining day in the sun and the long walk. Getting back to school for snack time and read aloud, I was surprised at how much we accomplished in school after all we had been able to experience and observe out of school.. and with fatigued students!

Some more fun photos from the day:

Looking at a local well with only a puddle of water in it, unfortunately it wasn't dug deep enough into the ground, so it dries out quickly in the dry season.

Another amazing discovery of the day were these great colorful grasshoppers. This was one Aidan caught within minutes of arriving at the well-site.

For more information on the well digging project check out the facebook group Lim We - Clean Water for Togo.