WATER TANK WEEK!

From the 14-19th of October, our group got to be a part of making the first water tank building on the island of Espiritu Santo! It was a real privilege to be building a water tank for the locals in the community that we were staying in.  

The first day of building the water tank, we all helped make the wooden form, which consisted of six large elements. It took a lot of elbow grease because we didn't have any electricity (and thus no power tools). We built a screen for sifting the sand, and we started the loooonnnggg sifting process.   

Even the locals helped us because they were so excited to have a water tank near their homes.

On the second day, our team made the skeleton of the lid.  Although it is easy to write about, it took a lot of work and it was time consuming.  Making the skeleton for the lid involved cutting rebar with a dull hack saw, bending it into the shape of circles and twisting TONS of wires around to keep it in place. We made something similar for the foundation and poured it with concrete the same day!

The foundation

On day three we poured the lid so it would have plenty of time to dry before we lifted it onto the tank. 

Day one, two, AND three, we did a lot sifting sand for the concrete. For maybe 30 minutes, the sand was easy to sift. Sadly, the majority of the time the sand was slowly sifted through two screens. It involved us sifting the rocks out first and then sifting out the shells and coral...by hand.

The first batch of cement was mixed in a wheelbarrow, but we all quickly realized that it was easier when mixing it in a tarp. Someone would hold each corner, and each person would lift in turn to mix the concrete evenly. It worked really well!

After pouring the foundation and the lid, we set up the form, wrapped it in fabric, chicken wire, and a thicker steel wire, and put up two coats of concrete. After we plastered the outside of the tank, we took the wooden forms out and then plastered the inside.  In the process of using the cement, we got very messy and even had an accident with the cement spilling ALL OVER Hannah and Abbey.  Whoops!

The last day of building the tank, we all had to lift an EXTREMELY heavy cement lid up above out heads. Fortunately, lots of villagers turned out to give us a hand!

Finally, we put up the gutter to collect water from the roof and direct it into the tank.

We came, we saw, we conquered. 

Over all, we all had an awesome week that was filled with hard work, cement, sand, wire, a few cuts here and there, and lots of bugspray and sunscreen. We were certainly tired by the end, but we had something pretty amazing to show for it! We still got to interact with the villagers while we worked, which was really good, and on Sunday we had the opportunity to lead church again. Brad led worship while  Charlene spoke on wisdom and humility and Dan spoke on finding truth and freedom in Christ. It was yet another really good week on Santo!

~The GO Group