Water for the World

I mentioned a while back about our planned trip to South Sudan to work on water projects, education and microbusiness.

This past weekend we joined our South Sudanese friends in celebrating what they've waited a lifetime to see--the independence of their country. South Sudan became an independent and soverign nation on July 9, 2011.

This past week, we took some important steps to get ready for the trip. Melat needs her certificate of citizenship, so we ordered that. Destiny and I spent (along with five more members of our South Sudan mission team) at a training camp to learn how to make BioSand water filtes. The training was created as a ministry of the Quaker church, but we had representatives from many faiths and nations including India, Pakistan, Iraq, Burundi, Kenya, Hondurus, Nicaragua, Uganda and South Africa, and of course our South Sudan team from Kent Lutheran Church.

We learned the skills and equipment required to build the biosand water filters, but also, we learned how to train others (in a culturally appropriate and sensetive way) about heygine, sanitation and water safety. (Photos below).

The sand filters that we learned to build are designed for the Center for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology in Alberta, Canada. They are basically a molded concrete shell with a biological filter (much like what a serious aquirist might build within their aquarium to keep water clean for their fish). The filters cost about $10USD to build and take one day for construction, after that, they can provide drinking water for up to 70 people for 30 years. Talk about a return on investment! The water is 98.7% safe, or about the same as the bottled water available in East Africa, and the sand filter can remove all toxins, bacteria, viruses and pollutants except for salt and pesticide (they don't have much of either in South Sudan).

We're also pursuing CAWST's training in latrine construction--especially imporant in South Sudan as the water level is quite high--groundwater is reached around 11 feet, so if latrines aren't constructed properly, we risk infecting the community with microbes or salt.

We've also been taught how to "franchise" the water filter program, providing jobs for about 60 people. Other microbusinesses will include solar power, agriculural farming of the moringa tree (a powerhouse!) and fishing businesses and sewing mosquito nets locally, rather than hiring out work to China.

There was a huge party in Seattle this week for Seattle's South Sudanese community (http://www.youtube.com/user/KLCSouthSudan), and over the weekend, I sold paper beads and told people in Kent's community about the project.

My favorite thing about this project is that is it is a joint venture between Americans and Sudanese refugees. They have the intimate knowledge of culture and tradition, and several are considered elders in their community, which lends a lot of authority to the projects. We expect that this will really enhance our team's effectiveness.

If you're interested in following along on these adventures, or contributing towards travel, we would love support of all kinds (prayer, spreading the word or financial support). Our family's fundraising goal is $12,000, which is quite daunting. We have the Paper Beads fundraiser on our web site at www.klcsouthsudan.blogspot.com. Perhaps the biggest help right now is something simple like "liking" the Facebook page and asking others to do so too. We're going to need a lot of prayer warriors for this.

We're also on Blogger. (There are more photos in our Flikr account, Blogger, Facebook and our Youtube channel). (Social media? We got it!)

Day 1 of "Water School"

Today was the first of five days of classes with Friendly Water for the World where we are learning to build biosand water filters. We have an energetic and diverse team of seven "builders" from Kent Lutheran alone, including speakers of English, Arabic, Swahili, Nuer, Dinka, and Amharic.

Today we met other missionaries from around the world including India, South Africa, Kenya, Burundi, Nicaragua, Mexico and probably at least a couple more that I (Jessica) forgot. The fellowship is fantastic. As our new friend Prosper Nbabishuriye of Burundi says, "It is your work, it is my work, it is our work, so it is God's work."

Half of our day was spent in classroom time learning about water contaminates, and the hazards of a life spent without pure water.

The second half of the day was spent in fellowship, and in the first stages of building a water filter. We learned how to identify and grade the sand suitable for concrete mixing and the biosand media. (Photos coming soon).

The sand sorting required quite a lot of manual work--shovels of gravel onto metal filter screens that two people shake repeatedly back and fourth. The sand filtered through four sets of screens to determine the four grades of sand; the finest for the filter media, the second finest for the concrete, the third finest for a gravel layer and finally a coarser gravel layer.

Filtering is time consuming and rhythmic work, so we learned some Swahili working songs to pass the time.

If you want to learn more about Prosper's work in Burundi (his work in Burundi is very similar to our agenda for South Sudan) please join us for a small working session at Kent Lutheran on Thursday at 7pm.