My Malawi Baptism...

Mass here in Bowe today was held outdoors. I was a little worried about this because the malaria prophylaxis I am taking causes sensitivity to the sun. Last October, even though I sat in the shade, I got a substantial sunburn. But this morning I slathered on the sunscreen and a long sleeved light weight shirt, found a prime seat in the shade and proceeded to be impressed once again. I have always heard the term “to celebrate the Mass”. Here they literally celebrate the Mass. There is singing, drums beating, and dancing at virtually every possible break. Haley and I were the only members of the team that lasted the whole 2 ½ hours. For me, it's as much a cultural experience as a worship experience. For Haley, it was also a social experience. As the time wore on the children around gradually worked up the courage to get closer and closer to her. With her welcoming smile reassuring them, by the end of the Mass, she was surrounded by at least a dozen little ones – one in her lap, another sharing her chair and one leaning on her sound asleep. Just beautiful!

Haley and her fan club.

We had a lunch of pasta, meat sauce and fresh cucumbers. Dingiri and Mr. Mbombo work here cooking, cleaning and generally taking care of the priests. (Dingiri is our nursing student, Temwa's, older sister.) They often cook foods that they believe are more like we eat at home and do a very respectable job. It was delicious.

The other times I have visitied here, we have had leisure time on Sunday afternoon.

I wasn't sure what to expect today as Big E, Ray and John had arranged to repair a couple of nearby water wells and invited/expected us to participate. Orant charities started their work here several years ago with the drilling and repairing of wells. It seems the people here need almost everything they are so poor, but what good is food, medicine or clothing if you don't have water?

The first village was only about 10 km from the mission compound. We loaded up the supplies and off we went. I am really clueless when it comes to almost anything that involves engineering or physics so I wasn't sure how I could possibly help. Well, physics and engineering aside, well repair involves some manual labor which I could contribute. I don't know the names of all the things we used, but we had to force little rubber ring things onto these long skinny rods that had hooks and eyes. Also the ends of the pipes had to be sanded. While Grace, Mel, Haley and I worked at this, Ray and John had Timeyo summon the village committee organized to maintain and repair the well in the future. The men disassembled the pump housing and removed it. The old hook and eye rods were removed all the way down to the last one which was holding a little ball with a rubber ring around it. Apparently “the seal” was worn out and this prevents the pressure from being able to build and force the water up through the pipe.

Then came the first exciting part. The PVC pipe had to be removed and this has to be done without breaking off and losing any or the well is lost. So the men pulled the water filled pipe up until it was high enough to lean. It is then manually sawed off a section at a time while the men desperately hold the lower pipe so as not to lose it. Haley was the first to receive what Orant calls her “Malawi baptism”. As the pipe is cut, all the water sprays as you saw. There was enough pipe for all four of the women in our group to be baptized twice. Haley and Mel are young and made easy work of it. Fortunately, my regular exercise paid off and I had no trouble either. Even Grace, who insists she does not do manual labor, couldn't resist.

My Malawi baptism.

Children gathered to observe the work on the well.

Haley's Malawi baptism.

The new pipe was sealed a piece at a time and lowered carefully so as not to drop it and ruin everything. Once it reached the correct depth the rods were dropped down into the water below and the housing was replaced. You could see the gathered crowd of villagers hold their breath as the pumping began and then the relief and joy when the fresh clear water gushed out. The women began dancing and singing and all the kids wanted to have a turn pumping. This well had been broken for five months and the people were getting their water from a stream a few kilometers away.

Dancing in celebration of the clean water from the repaired well.

During the course of this event, the men were taught how the well works and how to repair it. We also gave a 5 minute lecture on hygeine, clean water and the prevention of illness. We were thanked by the village chief and given a chicken and a large ration of maize flower.

The second well repair went faster because we now knew what to do and the men there knew how to help. Also, the sun was setting and it was rapidly cooling down. We left the sawing honors to Ray and the entire repair took only about an hour and a half. Lo and behold, the children who were so attracted to Haley at Mass this morning lived in this village so there was much laughing and picture taking while the men worked.

I'd say all in all, an exceptional day.