Pump Project

So I said it was gonna take a Hail Mary and it did, but the pump is almost done. I got the Chinese dudes to do it for me on credit once my SPA project was approved last week. Monday we called them, Tuesday I came out to my village with them. It took two days to dig the hole with this big machine literally the size of a truck. I mean, it IS a truck. But anyway. It’s 64 meters deep. Every meter, they took a handful of the stuff that was coming up and laid it out on the ground in a little grid so you can see what the makeup of the ground is meter-by-meter. It’s kind of cool. I’m afraid that the model pump they brought isn’t the one I want, though. I want the India/Mali Mark III or Mark IV. Because they are easy and cheap to repair. I am afraid that what I am getting is like the pumps we had in my village in Guinea which were NOT easy or cheap to repair. I tried to ask the Chinese dude but he speaks about as much French as I do Bambara (and NO Bambara) so I didn’t really get an answer. I will be able to tell when they pull it out to install it tomorrow. If it isn’t the one I want I might try to tell him to just leave it at the borehole and I will get the pump from elsewhere (which should still cost me around the same as the borehole is one set price, the other stuff another). But we’ll see if I can even communicate that concept to him. I have been freaking exhausted the last two days. All I want to do is sleep. Sometimes when I’m sitting out there watching the hole get dug I fall asleep sitting up in my chair. I guess I could attribute it to too many late nights last weekend but still…when am I going to catch up? If I want to go to the 4th of July party in Manantali this weekend I have to go back to BKO tomorrow (I could get a ride with the Chinese guy). But I’m so exhausted and still feeling ill (two weeks now – nothing showed up in my tests) that I don’t know if I’m up for a party weekend. I wanted to try to see if Molly was down to go, which might make my decision for me but of course the reseau was down today. So who knows. If I don’t go, somebody gave me a Sloppy Joe MRE (meals-ready-to-eat, military issue) so I could eat that in honor of our nation’s independence. That would be symbolic on so many levels. Anyway. I’m going to go crash super early in hopes that I make it to the work site on time tomorrow to make sure about the pump model. Bonne nuit!