Some more good news, some more bad news, the steeper mountain

Alright, this past week has been beyond crazy so I apologize for the infrequent posting. Giulia and I have been in meetings all week with various hospital administrators and different drilling companies, trying to figure out how to get this project off the ground. In addition, and poignantly, the orphanage and hospital themselves are currently without water, which at LEAST doubles the workload of everyone working there - plus Mama Pendo is on holiday, visiting kids from  the orphanage currently enrolled in boarding school and now on vacation, and I have a billion things to do for Tamiha as well, which are sadly sitting on the back burner as I try to keep my head above water. So, first the bad news.

After speaking to various drilling companies, it appears that the well is going to be much more expensive than we originally thought. Because Nkoaranga is on a hill, the well will likely need to be at least 60 or 70 meters deep, maybe as much as a hundred. Even the best quotes we've gotten average about $90 USD per meter. Before we even know how deep the well will need to be, we have to comission a survey, which comes to about $500, even given the extensive discounts people have been willing to give us.

The good news: Giulia's amazing family and friends have come up with $5000 for the project, and I currently have about $3000 available - but we will almost certainly need closer to $10,000 to $12,000. Again, we might get lucky and only need to drill 700 meters, and then have money available for all the other projects - but we're not counting on it. The hospital is opening an independent account, that Guilia and I will be signatories for, exclusively for the drilling project. It is through the hospital (which funds the orphanage), which is a registered nonprofit, and therefore donations should be fully tax deductible - however, we have to figure out the details of the international aspect. Any tax experts out there? We are working on it!

Vaguely controlled chaos

Apart from that, we have two MORE new babies, bringing the grand total to six under the age of 6 months, four under one month. They are very, very, very small - I would bet that Rezeki is pretty severely premature, his face is very downy, and he also has a pretty nasty abscess on his arm that the hospital operated on yesterday. Poor little munchkin. The other kids are doing well - Zawadi tested positive for worms, which is, counterintuitively, a GOOD thing, because it explains why she is so little and it's easily treatable. Of course now we have to test the other babies... and really, I get enough interactionw ith poop as it is, I'm not thrilled to be signing up for more. Anyway, their health is clearly more important.

Other good news - TAMIHA received a huge donation of books from a project in America, and they are happy for us to take a bunch of them over to Nkoaranga for free, which helps a lot with financial stress on my end. We've also spent a lot of money in the last few weeks to buy new diapers, because when the water is out it gets incredibly difficult to keep up with the demand.

I miss home a lot sometimes, but I am honestly ridiculously happy here, I don't totally understand it - I love this work, and I guess at the end of the day that's what matters.

I know that it's the holidays, and you have a million demands on your time and money. But please consider whether this project is something you can help with. We're talking about drastically affecting the hygeine and survival rates of the thousands of poor Africans who use the hospital, about making the lives of these children and all of those who will come in after them - and there will always be more - infinitely safer, cleaner, and happier. Thank you for reading and caring -and a special shout out to Nikki and her kids, who sound wonderful - so glad you're enjoying reading!

All my love to you back home.