Mission Residence

Well No. 2

Yrybucua Mission House

Sponsor - The St. Marys UMC Foundation

St. Marys, Georgia

Yrybukua is a small town in the rural farm region of the Department (like our States) of San Pedro. In 1990, Korean missionaries from a Methodist Church in New Jersey built a "residency" facility and a church. The church facility has since moved closer to town, and the residency has become a "missionary station" where several teams of short term missionaries stay as well as where a number of career missionaries stay when working in the area. However, there has been a serious shortage of water at this facility. The existing hand-dug well is open to surface contamination, yields silty water of "dubious" quality and has a very low flow rate.

Old residency at Yrybucua

The old well DEFINITELY needs to be replaced

Since a missionary work team from the Korean Methodist church in New Jersey is planning to come to Yrybucua early in 2003, it was decided to drill a new well at the residency. The well was placed in the back of the property which is higher than the residency and also uphill from the septic tank. However, this location offered very little shade, and temperatures reached 110°F. This well gave Dilio and Esteban, the new Paraguayan members of the team a chance to drill solo, since Ed had to spend much of his time bringing water from the nearby stream.

Drill site with Linda taking notes under the tarp -

it was REALLY hot!

Esteban and Dilio MAKIN' HOLE

It takes between 50 and 100 barrels of water to drill a well - and at three barrels per load, that's a LOT of trips to the river. But the local kids are always ready to help. It was a real treat to work with them and get to enjoy their enthusiasm,

Everybody wants to help with the water run

The kids are really having a great time ...

...and then they get to unload the water.

Once we get the hole drilled, we have to install the pipe - 4 inch diameter PVC. The bottom 60 feet of pipe is slotted to let the water in. The pipe is glued with PVC cement and secured with short screws - just in case! It would be a real disaster to drop part of the pipe in the hole.

The kids even help us bring the well casing to install.

It is really tricky placing 20 foot lengths of pipe

in the hole without dropping them

Linda is the "glue lady" - a very important job with 140 feet of pipe hanging in the hole!

After the well casing is installed, the electric submersible pump is set in the hole. This type of pump is the most dependable and is by far the best we can use in these wells.