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Well No. 27

 Free Brethren Church of Tacuapí

 

 Sponsors - First United Methodist Church of Lawrenceville

Lawrenceville, Georgia

 

Tacuapí is an community which was homesteaded about 40 years ago near the town of San Estanislao (Santani) where we lived for 5 years.  Many of the early settlers were believers with the Free Brethren Church which was the first Protestant Church started in the area.  The brothers of the Tacuapi Free Brethren Church built a beautiful little church using all their own resources and labor - no outside funds were used.  It is a joy to work with such a motivated, self-dependent group.  The church is located about 1/2 mile down the road from the small Methodist where we worshipped for 5 years, so we knew many of the members.

Beautiful church built to replace the old wooden structure which was damaged in a wind storm

Brother Pedro (Church Elder) with his wife and another church member

With the decrease in the buying power of the US dollar and the steady increase in material costs, we have had to work hard to stretch the donations that we receive for well projects.  One way we do this is to ask the local church members to provide 2 or 3 volunteer helpers and to provide us lunches while we are working.  The church is located adjacent to the house of Pedro Bernal, who is a church Elder.  He worked with us much of the time and his wife and another church member provided delicious Paraguayan lunches for us each day.  When we have chicken we have to be prepared to CHEW - you can't believe how tough "yard bird" can be.  These chicken lead a hard life fending for themselves and running from many natural enemies - only to wind up in the stew-pot!

Edgar, one of the volunteers, helping to get water from a small stream nearby

Neighborhood boy playing in the spray as we clean out the well

When we arrived the members of the church were already building a water tower.  They had a lot of faith that we would get the well in successfully - we usually don't build the water tower until we have a completed well.  We had some trouble in the first location with excessive drill-water loss.  After working for a couple days trying to seal the loss zone, we decided to move 30 feet away to another location.  We were able to get in a good well at this location without any trouble.  The brothers finished the tower and hooked up the pump that we provided.  They plan to run pipe to several houses in the community to provide much needed running water - or as we like to say here - Agua Viva - Living Water.

Young people singing at the well dedication service - all the women wear head scarves

After the project was done they asked us to come to a dedication and appreciation service.  Ed preached his favorite sermon on John 4:14 about the Samaritan woman at the well.  Afterwards we were all treated to a wonderful dinner at Pedro's house.  Linda noticed that she was the only female at the table of about 20 men.  Most of the church women were running around serving dinner to the 100 plus people who were at the worship service. 

This was a wonderful project for a blessed group of folks - Gracias a Dios!!!

 Technical Details

 

Sponsors:    First United Methodist Church of Lawrenceville

                        Lawrenceville, Georgia

Drilling date: Sept 10 - 13, 2008

Location:   Latitude -  S 24°34.033'     Longitude - W 56° 27.327'

Elevation:     239 meters above sea level

Total cost:    $2,675

Drill depth:   42.5  meters (139.8 ft.)

Soil types encountered:   Sand and clay, with clean sandstone at depth

Static groundwater level:     6.53  meters below ground surface

Dynamic groundwater level:      20.0 meters

Installed well depth:  41 meters

Length of screened section:   18 meters

Length of gravel packed section:  28 meters

Length and type of sealed section:  Approx. 1 meter of bentonite pellets

Pump description:    1 hp mono-phase electric submersible

Depth to base of pump:   37 meters

Flow rate:    2,600  liters/hour

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