:Pictures, Kenema District, Sierra Leone

This boy's name is Bubba.  He acted like his name.  He ran right up to  Jim like he knew him and  hugged his knees.

While driving around in Kenema we noticed three Tippy Taps or Squeezy  Bottles  being used as hand washing stations at this school.  The well is on the right out of view.  It was fun to see that hygiene training worked here and that they are using our method to wash their hands.

Remember the big rig stuck on the Grafton hill?  This is a picture of it.   When we returned to Freetown we saw that they finally were able to move it.  Still, it was a challenge getting up the steepest hill.  The dirt is so soft but luckily has pointy rocks sticking up that helped us lurch up the hill.  

One enterprising contractor made a concrete pad to mix his cement on.  We liked this so much we  asked Jonathan to have them all do this.  It keeps the dirt and grass out of the mix.

Each village is required to provide the bricks so that the contractor can  build a wall around their well.   Some instead built stick fences, which is fine also.  One NGO came into a village and donated a well, nothing required.  The village next to it where we were providing a well, became disgruntled to think they had to provide sand and stone and bricks for a wall.  Our hygiene facilitator told them that long after the other well breaks, theirs will keep working because they will take care of it, repair it, clean it, because it is theirs.  When the other one breaks, they will have to wait for another NGO to come along and do it for them, because they won't do it for themselves because they are not organized.  

The man in the well takes the bucket of cement, pours it into a head pan and then pours the mix behind the  forms to cast the rings and tamps it down to make sure there is no gaps in the concrete.  They continue to cast rings till they reach the top.  The rings at the bottom should have 3 meters of water in the dry season to ensure water when the rains stop.  Jonathan said that each year the water table drops.

These ladies were dying to have me take their picture while they winnowed their  rice.

Note the forms that they use to form the rings for the interior of the well.  In  Liberia they cast the rings on the ground, and when they are cured they drop them into the well.  Here, they cast them while they are in the well.

They typically mix their cement on the ground.  The same bucket they are using to add water to the mix is the same bucket that they will lower the 'mud' into the well to cast the rings.