~~~

paito say in tofo: babalaza means:

<hangover>

but just drink a fresh coconut, then you are good to go again…

level 6: clean water

status:

double finish

source friend: julia pedro

depth: 19m

the centre of the market, hospital and school is not just a bus stop.

it‘s a lovly meeting point where the people just be, and hang (around) over long time.

6. May 2025 at 14:21:

My father is in the hospital with a diagnosis that is not pleasant. At the moment I would like to visit him, he is far away the documents make it difficult to leave. I am trying something else. Babalaza also sounds like father.

The team will start tomorrow…

7. May 2025

Say no...:

It is not the first time that the drilling team has told me on the phone that someone has said that it is not possible to place a well here...

If you ask for the sender’s name and phone number, the haunting is almost over.

This time, however, the team was intimidated and put down the work. For which I admire them, the five men can just sit down for a whole day and do nothing without having a guilty conscience or asking someone for wages for the waiting time.

Here time is not money, here is time there, even during working hours - to live...

Now the alternatives are shooting like mushrooms out of the ground when the available drilling team is ready for a first drinking water well in the village and does not yet know where the well should go, especially at the bus stop.

During various phone calls over the afternoon, two alternatives arise, the school and the market... The school needs more than just a turning well, the means are lacking, the market does not offer a proud, shady tree.

In the middle of the afternoon sun of the colorful hustle and bustle at the market in Inhambane, someone greets me, my girlfriend says it’s Thomas‘ brother, named Pedro, he lives in Babalaza. Then it is also clear to me why he calls me „brother in love“. I ask him for support in Babalaza, which he gladly and gratefully offers, tomorrow at eight...

When we arrive in Babalaza shortly before sunset, Joseph calls me from the Chappa, he thinks the mayor has come over specifically to say that it is no problem to set up the pump at the bus stop.

As so often, again:

~ It starts tomorrow ~

And the good news comes later from my sister:

Today my dad felt better again.

The omen of the awakening source..?

8. May 2025

Arrived at the bus stop everyone is there, except the mayor...

The drilling team, Pedro, two women from the market and many onlookers. The selection is the same and although the first location is now possible, we are still checking the market, the school needs more than just a hand pump. I want to let my father decide and try to reach him in the hospital, he unfortunately does not answer, but just at this moment I hear from the drilling team, the market needs water, at the same time I think all the vegetables are eaten if the water with which they wash it is not fresh...

And lo and behold - there is also a bus stop directly at the market

Just do it…

8. May 2025 Evenings:

The drill hole finished, the pipes are laid.

Depth: 19 meters

Tomorrow the material of the pump will be organized, the day after we install it…

9. May 2025 at 21:13:

Joseph calls me again and again sometimes the communication is not quite clear and difficult when you are facing a person but when this person is talking on the phone and you are distracted from the previous situation yourself this does not make the situation easier and so I can only summarize that all these phone calls that I had with Joseph today show the result that nothing happened in this source today

11. May 2025 11:18

I’m finally on the phone with my father. He complains about the stagnation of his health and increased fever last night.

I recognize a certain symmetry between my father’s state of health and the progress of the well.

I talk to him about the water in Africa. There are many seeds here, but no one to pour them...

11. May 2025 11:23

Unfortunately, I can’t reach Joseph...

12. May 2025 07:46

I call Joseph back after three unanswered calls. And get the message that he needs 1000 mts to continue...

Thanks to Moises, I now know the real prices and know that the money is not invested for life. And yet it is not healthy to climb on the palm so early in the morning with anger...

I definitely deny, Joseph accepts and confirms that he will accomplish the work today...

12. May 2025 11:59 AM

The last time I sent 1000 mts nothing happened for two days. Today there was no money yet but now the call:

„We’re done!“

On the received picture everything looks good at first. After:

„We are hungry“ I make a deposit of the final payment and make my way to Babalaza...

11. May 2025 12:34 PM

A fish made of lead is not able to swim. And so I ask myself, how can seven other fish not recognize this...

The source works, but the outlet is so far down that it is not possible to put a boiler under it...

I try to express myself laboriously and as best I can, not to express myself in a derogatory way...

They see the problem and promise a solution.

I think to myself:

They don’t really want that - they don’t want to be Pisces, although they are and go after this one thing every day...

Ok, penguins don’t fly either, but are they really birds?

“Where are you going? We’ll be ready in 20 minutes,“ Joseph asks.

„I’ll be there...“

And again:

The problem reminds me of my father and his challenges with his „outlet“

At the moment in bed very difficult and effort-consuming to leave water...

11. May 2025 Afternoon

The new solution now makes it possible to place a boiler.

With the disadvantage that a large part of the water to the rotary wheel floods upwards.

Yes, the new solution is also used by my father. In addition, liquid occasionally overflows with him.

But here I can not yet be satisfied with the best will and perhaps also against the opinion of many grateful locals.

I have the claim that my father’s source offers more and wonder how he is doing now...

14.05.2025 16:10

I walk near the market and people seem friendly and nervous at the same time. The closer, the more intense the urge to communicate, until then a market saleswoman starts talking to me, whereupon the others hang.

Gitonga, the local language is not quite simple and yet I understand until the end what it is about:

The leash is torn.

Not bad, Moises is here anyway and

📋 sets the outlet higher

📋 grinds the wood

📋 lengthens the pipe

And accordingly:

📋 repairs the leash

The hardworking workers create a generating work.

15.05.2025 15:26

Today people are in a good mood and the pump is already different...

15.05.2025 15:32

And yet it is not quite finished functionally yet...

A friend of the team still places some cement...

15. May 2025 7:55 PM

I get the good news from my sister that my father is doing better and he will probably be discharged from the hospital tomorrow...

I hold back my feelings because this has been predicted so many times and then not implemented.

However, the timing with the source is very close...

23. May 2025 at 12:54:

I sit down in the cafe ressaca near this source, order a hot water and dissolve a vitamin C tablet in it, make some phone calls and ask what it costs. The friendly employee looks at me and says „de Nada“ for water you don't have to pay anything here

I'm happy about this fact