Solving the Water Problem

Modern technology – what would we do without it! The other day Jake needed to clean his spade after using it in the chaco. There was a bucket of water from the well sitting there so he just cleaned it in there. The next morning when he went to use the water for the plants there was no scum! The water appeared fairly clear from the magnesium and didn’t have an odor. Quite the discovery – maybe.

So he took 2 more buckets, filled them well water and let them sit in the open air for a day. The usual yucky, unattractive scum appeared. If you put a plate or a container in this water you would immediately get a reddish scum which, if you did not wash it, would stain badly. After a day, Jake took clay in which there was no humus and mixed it with the water. It sat undisturbed for another day at which time he found that the water was clear, a bit dirty but clear. We left it for another day and most of the dirt had settled to the bottom of the bucket.

When we had the water tested in Canada we were told that it was not harmful, just disgusting to look at. Now that it is clear it should be good for the people to use. We hope that they will apply this simple technology and use there wells. It was two years ago today that we came to the community to drill the wells and now we hope that they can actually use the water. We are very thankful that the solution is simple and economical.

The Garden

According to the people in the community we planted our garden too late. Thankfully, they didn’t look at how we seeded! Jake cleared the land with the machete and I hauled the largest trees away and pulled up the majority of the vines. The rest of the material we left and planted the seeds among the rotting leaves and weeds.

They, on the other hand, have very clean garden without many weeds since they burn everything. Theirs does look neater and cleaner but…..

In 3 months we had a wonderful garden fed by the decomposing plants and all the kitchen waste. We planted everything much closer than they would and we had great growth and production.

We received our seeds from ECHO and planted Malibar Spinach, lettuce, and lablab beans. Unlike our neighbours we leave the lettuce in the ground and only harvest the leaves. They take everything out by the root when it is ready so we hope to teach them that the length of production can be lengthened just by harvesting only the leaves. The lablab beans, used for eating and for green manure, are a great topic of converstion.

Our tomatoes are producing enough fresh tomatoes for the two of us. The are getting ripe after all the rest in the community and again we will experiment next year with succession planting. The men who work for us are amazed that the corn was planted 3 or 4 inches apart in the row and still produced wonderful ears. They plant their corn at 1 meter spacing in the row with the rows 1 meter apart. The variety we planted is an open pollinated corn from ECHO and is quite tasty. Next time we hope to plant some good American sweet corn. When we ate the first corn the men were amazed that yellow corn was so sweet!

There will be great demand for the amaranth seed since Jake has been making that for breakfast laced with butter and brown sugar. The guys love it!

So we are very pleased with our first garden and people are coming to look at it. That is exactly what we want so we hope and pray that some of our ideas for producing food throughout the year will work.

Life Without Marg

It’s our anniversary. It has been two years since we first came to Bolivia on the well drilling project. In some ways it seems like longer and in others it seems like yesterday. Never did we imagine two years ago that we would be living here!


Marg spent two weeks at language school in Cochabamba learning how to say things in the past tense. While she was there things continued at the chaco – the house was being built and there were still workers there every day.

When we hired our employees or ayudantes (helpers) we told them that their food was included and I think that they thought the food would be cooked. But with the chief cook in Cochabamba, who would cook? Jake took over and found how long it took to peel and cut all the veggies every day. (He would do the garlic at night since he read that garlic would repel snakes. Now I never worried about snakes because I knew from experience that Jake would kill them for me.) Then he would throw all of them in a large pan in the morning along with our favorite Maggi seasoning cubes and let it boil. When it came time for dinner it was done. For the second course it is essential that you cook a large pan of rice. Although he never figured out how to get the rice less sticky he managed well with that also. Then the meat. Cutting up some more onions, peppers and tomatoes was no bid deal and then just add the hamburger. Put freshly cut tomatoes and onions on the table and everything was ready to go. Pretty standard stuff and there were no complaints from the ayudantes. They told me they were well fed but that they were glad that I was back. Like Jake says. “When all they usually get is just a bowl of rice and some veggies, anything is good!”

He also had to take over the taxi role and that proved to be a bit more interesting. One morning he had planned to take our neighbour to La Pista to the doctor. Her little boy had an operation on his leg and the bandage needed regular changing. So he was getting ready to go at 7 in the morning when another neighbour came by and asked if he would take his wife along. Now, remember, that Jake’s knowledge of Spanish is limited and it is sometimes difficult to know everything that is being said. So Jake just said he would pick her up. Imagine his surprise when he found out that the wife was in labor! OK, now what does he do – drive quickly to La Pista through all the wonderful ruts or drive slowly and make sure he doesn’t bounce her too hard. He heard that the tale that if you wanted to have a baby come, ride on a rough road. He decided to take the middle route by going as fast as he could without bouncing too much. As they proceeded down the road, Juan Carlos, the future father, cheerfully chatted to Jake as he drove. He didn’t seem concerned about his wife who was riding in the back seat with the other lady and her son. When they arrived at La Pista, Roberta, the future mother, was squatted between the front and the back seat and Jake was sure she was going to have the baby right there. Juan Carlos nonchalantly walks to the hospital, talks to the doctor, and Roberta makes it to the door. Not ten minutes later a beautiful baby boy was born. Jake picked them up a day later and brought them to her parents. After a couple days they returned home on the back of the family motor cycle, the baby riding on her back and their other son in front on Juan Carlos.