The mountain moved-Guatemala well dig continues

For a week, Ted van der Zalm has been repeating the same phrase, almost like a mantra.

“Mountains are going to move,” he said, referring to a water well that has thwarted his efforts to sink it. It’s located in the mountain community of El Rodeo, a community of 3,000 with no access to clean water for its citizens.

Van der Zalm is here with the Wells of Hope team to help drill wells for the impoverished people living around Jalapa, in rural Guatemala.

But his drill became frozen in a pocket of dense sand several days ago. His initial attempt to free the drill failed, leaving him with no option but to jerry-rig a solution. He welded well-casings together to send down into the hole to blast the sand with air.

If he could blast the sand away, maybe the drill would be able to move and he would be able to free it.

“All I needed to do was get that drill moving, and then I could get it out of the well,” he said.

“Just a little bit of movement and I can get it out and finish the well.”

He was running out of time. Monsoon season is just a few weeks away and heavy downpours have already started in the mountains of Jalapa.

If he could not get the well finished soon, van der Zalm could lose the well and his drilling rig might sink into a swamp of mud.

The setbacks did not deter him, however. Each night at dinner, he would say the same thing.

Mountains will move.

The mantra is rooted in part in his determination and in part on his Catholic faith. He believes through hard work and faith, he can do the job he feels tasked to do in Guatemala.

Recently, he and a Guatemalan crew worked late into the night and eventually blew away enough of the sand to get the drill moving.

“Remember that mountain we were talking about?” van der Zalm asked the Wells of Hope volunteer team when he finally returned from El Rodeo.

“It moved.”

The next day, van der Zalm began disassembling the well casings. By later this week, he hopes to be able to finish the well.

It was the second metaphorical mountain he moved this week. Van der Zalm had promised the community of Sanyuyo he would provide a generator to run a well he dug for them last year because the local government had failed to live up to a promise to provide the electricity to operate it.

Thanks to a donation from  Sir Corp., a restaurant corporation, Wells of Hope was able to purchase the generator and install it Friday evening.

grant.lafleche@sunmedia.ca

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