The team of 11 volunteers working with LivingWater International on this project varied in age, gender, and professional experience.
homes we passed were stacked cinder block, with sheet metal roofs, and dirt floors. When we arrived at the site, we were told the school’s existing deep well had been dry for 10 days or so. At the time of the trip, it was sug- arcane harvesting season, so the groundwater level no longer reached the elevation of the existing well. Some homes in the area had wells of their own, but were also shallow and usually only fed one or two hose bibs or taps fitted with small-diameter PVC via gravity from an elevated plastic tank outside. The locals talked of getting sick often from drinking the water. It was a humbling feeling. I was excited to spend a week working to provide something so vital to the community. This well was the first that LWI installed in the area. The local com- munity organizer said that they first contacted LWI seven years ago to start the process of getting a fresh water source for the area. The well was planned to be installed in front of the local school that was home to about 230 students. The school was the local gathering place in the community, so it made sense for the water source to be located there. There was some level of preliminary planning and exploration in choosing this site prior to my arrival. The LWI Guatemalan operations had multiple drill teams. Our team took its orders from lead driller Rudy Gonzales, who had been with the organization for six years and installed 20 wells each year.
The total drilling time for the new well was approximately three days. On the start of the first day, we dug and prepared the mud pits and decant channel. This allowed for settling out and screening some of the dirt and sediment prior to recirculating water back to the drill rig. The mud pits were dug to about 4 feet by 4 feet square, and separated by a 1-foot-wide by 18-inch-deep decant channel running between the two pits. About 10 local men from the village helped us with this work during the week. Once the pits were dug and sprayed with bentonite to help stabilize the walls, the drilling began. We drilled 70 feet using a 4-inch paddle bit, but encountered a few large rocks that we were only able to penetrate with about 5 feet worth of drill rod during an hour’s time. At this point, we decided to change the drill bit to a 4-inch roller cone- type bit. This bit resembles a planetary-cone gear that has three addi- tional oval-shaped gears around it rotating in the opposite direction of the center gear to create a cutting action. Changing the drill bit required removing the previously driven 10-foot end rods and re-inserting them once the new bit was attached. On the first day, we drilled 70 feet be- fore changing the bit, and continued to drill to a depth of 120 feet. On the second day, we started with a 7-inch roller cone bit and reamed the well to the previously achieved 120 feet and drilled an extra 10 feet.
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