FAQ's

Here are answers to frequently answered questions:

Do I need to be an engineer to teach water well drilling, pump repair or biofilters? No. Lifewater and other NGO's can teach you within a week. On the first trip, you can assist with training. Within another trip or two you can be prepared to lead the training. Actually, I feel like teachers are best equipped for these trips because the most effective way to teach is a discovery process.    We ask leading questions and try to answer their questions with questions like "what do you think?"

Is it safe? Obviously there are no guarantees, but a good partner and a good NGO will keep you out of harm's way. The biggest risk is vehicle accidents. Except for the vehicles, I've felt safer in these countries than when I am in the "wrong part" of big cities in the US. Check with a group like Passport Health for your immunizations.  The US State Department issues travel advisories that you should check. 

Vision for the slums of Zambia

In July, 2007 we worked with Seeds of Hope International Partners (SHIP). Teams from LI had recently taught hygiene and biofilter technology. LI had also taught drilling and pump repair. This trip was focused on teaching sanitation (latrines) which was the final piece of the WASHE puzzle. SHIP has already done some amazing work. They will become the center of expertise for all of Zambia teaching other organizations how to manufacture and market biofilters. They have a vision of providing biofilters to people in the slums who have taken training in the use of biofilters and have demonstrated that they are utilizing the hygiene and sanitation training they have been taught. This seems like a practical solution for the slum areas because it is unlikely that governments or donors are likely to install water systems and sewers.

Pump repair and biofilters in Uganda

Uganda (February 2007): One team taught biofilters to almost 20 students while another man and I taught hand pump repair to 20 other students. We were in northern Uganda in an area that had once been overrun by the “Lord’s Resistance Army.” We heard horror stories of the terrorism and destruction spread by the LRA and its child soldiers. We saw villages that had been destroyed and conducted our training within a stone’s throw of a “displaced persons camp.” People from that camp used the water pump on the compound where we were teaching. We fixed several pumps while teaching. One pump served a displaced persons camp and a school of over 1000 children. Their water source is shown in the picture with the camp in the background. We pulled a pump that had been serving thousands of people in a large suburban area. It had ceased functioning almost 6 months earlier. I enjoy pump repair the most because it costs so little to help so many people. People in northern Uganda are desperate for our help. Between terrorism, AIDS, malaria, unemployment, and WASH related diseases, these people have little to be happy about. It is a good feeling to know the people we taught will be helping many more people (funded by a large grant from Blood Water Mission/Jars of Clay).

Teaching water well drilling & hygiene in Tibet

Tibet (May 2005): This was my first trip with Lifewater International (LI). We worked with our host agency (Friends of China) and taught hygiene to four Buddhist men as well as how to drill with a rotary drilling rig. Other teams had been there before us and others have followed because LI emphasized sustainable development. We drilled a well in a school of over 100 children. Construction and development is occurring about everywhere you look in China, but every country has its poor. Conditions in Tibet are incredibly harsh. I was a little surprised how cool it was in the middle of the summer. We were told that the ground freezes about 10' deep (~3 meters). This shouldn't have surprised me as we were on a 12,000' plateau. The children watched our activities with great curiosity. LI is a Christian organization, but we did not attempt to even share why we were there in keeping with Chinese laws.