Water is life here in Africa. I guess it is life everywhere but in some
places like here you just don’t take it for granted. I have been reading through the Bible this
year and have been impressed how often water is related to life itself — life with
God. Still waters, rivers of life, clean
water over a dry and weary land.
In 2007 our friends Ed and Linda Langfeldt donated some
money for a project here in Swaziland. Since
Ed has spent a lot of his life drilling wells in Indiana we thought it would be
appropriate to put the money toward a water related project.
doing the cooking were literally walking a mile and getting dirty water from a
creek — the same creek where the cows did their thing. This care point has a long unpronounceable name,
but we have shortened it to Ntabas.
Ruby (on the left in front of the old kitchen at Ntabas) is the main gogo who cooks at Ntabas. Ruby is 78 years old and has never been
married or had kids of her own. But she
has taken care of plenty and even now has several children living in her home with
her. Now can you imagine a 78 year old woman carrying 5 gallons of water on her
head for a mile up a hill from a creek?
Well, this was Ruby.
The summer of ’07 my father was in Swaziland with Marcia and
me. We worked very hard for a few days
putting in a cement block stand for a large water tank for the Ntabas care
point. It was great to see Ruby light up
when we put in the water tank and stand so she would not have to carry water so
far and we could also provide clean water delivered to fill the tank. (On a side note, I think Ruby likes dad —
their birthdays are only a couple weeks apart and the same year and when she
saw us this time around she asked about him and brought a picture of the two of
them together in 2007!)
Well this has all worked very well (no pun intended) until a
church that supports the Ntabas care point — Warren Baptist in Augusta Georgia —
donated money to drill a well on site at the care point.
This is a huge improvement to the water system we put in a
couple years ago because now there will be enough water to have a garden. Also it will be more cost effective than
filling up the water tank with delivered water.
So you can see how it takes several people to come along and
do what they can to make something good happen. I am so blessed to show you this short video
we took early in the morning when the drilling
equipment was on site.
Water is truly life — and thanks to the hard work of so many,
life will get better for Ruby and the children she feeds every day at Ntabas
care point.
just now catching up on all your blogs. this is great work.
hey – maybe your dad and Ruby, huh? Interesting idea….