Leaky pipes and books galore

Wow so much has happened. We started the water project! Finally. It was originally scheduled for December 9 and we just did it Feb 10-12. Two months late and exactly right on schedule for Fiji time. Aside from the tardiness, the workshops went very well and we identified some major water problems in our village.

Before the spring/dam/pipes we use now we installed the villagers used 4 wells for water. When the wells dried up in the 1970s, the government came in a built a dam from a spring about 2 km up a mountain from my village. The fact that the wells dried up should be a clue that our spring is a natural resource and could dry up as well. That's why it's so important we use it wisely. However, we have many leaky or broken pipes that gush water on a consistent basis. They never turn off. The amount of water wasted is devastating to consider so I try to forget about it.

Next week, we start construction on the new dam. This one will protect and cover the spring and dam. As of now, our dam is uncovered and during heavy rains, our water is muddy due to mini landslides. Then we will have enough money to fix the broken spouts in the village and even some of the underground pipes that leak. This makes me extremely happy. I'm excited to get started on the construction. It should take 2-3 weeks for everything to be completed and for our new water tank to be installed. It's 10,000 liters and a puke green color but it will help conserve water and filter it for us too! Awesome.






I've started working on a library for both the primary and secondary schools. They have maybe 200 books between the 2 schools making it virtually impossible for the secondary students to do research and the primary students to have any library visits. I've already received some books from the Rotary Club in Suva and am anticipating that my contact will donate more in the future. I'm looking for overseas donors too. Anything would be better than what we have.

At the secondary we have one small set of science encyclopedias, a guinness world book of records, a thesaurus, an outdated australian encyclopedia set, and about 50 fiction books. At the primary, the books are missing pages, dirty, and scarce. Their most recent encyclopedias are from 1975 and the fiction at the primary are books like "Brave New World" and "Cat's Cradle" by Vonnegut. So I'll be doing some necessary rearranging between the schools.

Since English is their second language, the kids love easy books with pictures. Comic books are great too. I'm just trying to locate everything I can for them. The teacher/part-time librarian for the secondary is really excited about filling her already-existing shelves and I'm excited to help her do this. I'm also looking forward to doing story time with the kids at the library once we have some more resources. As of now, these projects are keeping me super busy, but I'm glad to be back and working hard.