Arriving To The Well Site
Guatemala - February 20, 2006
Yesterday we traveled about 4.5 hours southwest from Antigua towards the coast to get to the city of Ixil, (prounced ee-shEE-le). 
Ixil is a very remote village just a few miles from the Pacific coast of Guatemala. The village has approximately 38 families living along a one-lane road which is more or less a wide path. Ixil has no running water, sewer drainage system, electrical power or phone services. By all accounts it is quite primitive by western standards. Water is not scarce though. Several homes have a hand-dug well that can be used to draw water to bathe and wash clothes. Ixil received its first clean water well just last year when Living Water drilled a well and installed a hand pump on the west end of the village. With the spread out nature of the community and news that more families will be relocating here, the installation of a second well on the east end of Ixil was planned.
The drilling rig that is being used is a DR-20, a small two-wheeled unit that is unhitched from the truck and mast raised. The pilot hole was drilled today, which was roughly 100 feet deep and 2 inches in diameter. The pilot hole has three key functions: it provides a very good sampling of what the soil is like and also provides accurate depths of the water aquifers. During the pilot hole drilling, soil samples are recorded every 5 feet as well as every time a reservoir is reached. Indication and assessment of a water reservoir can be made based on the smoothness and size of the rocks, since the reservoirs commonly reside on a rock layer. The pilot hole is also imperative in the drilling of the main 4-inch drill hole that will commence tomorrow.
-Lee
Traci said...Thanks for the update! I can't wait to read more about the project and see more pictures of Ixil and the people there...I love the new pic on the main page! Praying for y'all and for the lives your reaching everyday :)