things are picking up

i just have a few minutes to try to update and this keyboard has alot of sand dust stuck in it so it is difficult to type.

things got off to a slow start - i got out to the village of adoka on wednesday, and spent thursday - saturday looking for the right supplies. unfortunately there is no home depot here, therefore the efficiency of locating materials is a bit slow. but we did manage to find everything. finding the right sand for the filter has been tricky - at the moment we are not using the optimal sand but it will do the job.

we took the first filter to the catholic women's group yesterday - first swayed the 'reverend father' first. i gave a little introduction about the filter to about 100 women, then demonstrated by pouring dirty water in and clean water coming out. i felt like i was doing a magic show as i was standing in the back of a pickup truck and the looks on some of the older women's faces was priceless. their jaws dropped - weren't quite sure what was going on inside of the big cement box...
they were very interested and asked when they could get one and how much they would cost. so we have several potential orders already!
networking with people in the community is just as important as making the filter, so we have been meeting with alot of people. i met the chief of adoka the other night - that was a classic story all in itself. no time to post it now. i'll just say i sat on red velour couches in a room lit by a single red lightbulb and was served 'bubbling wine' with a taste reminiscent to laundry detergent...
it is going well though and people are very excited about clean water. i have seen what they drink out of the stream and it is not pretty...
i don't know when i can post again - we are in a different city right now..
we plan to start pouring the filters today - sift more rock and sand -
have a great day!
alida