Island Plumbing

The two who braved the rain for English Club

The rain was pouring down outside.  I was enjoying sitting on the porch and watching the road turn into a river when the phone rang.  It was our teammate.  She had a flooding problem, only it wasn’t from the rain.  A pipe in her bathroom had broken.  Plumbing emergency!  Grab an umbrella, and head out into the pouring rain.  There are pipes to be fixed.  Plumber Tom to the rescue!

I knew virtually nothing about plumbing before coming to Africa.  I got a few valuable lessons from my friend, Tim, but other than that I had limited experience and limited knowledge.  But thanks to poor quality plumbing fixtures, the islands have helped me develop my plumbing skills a great deal.  I’ve replaced faucets, drains, pipes, showers, and toilet systems.  So when my teammate called, I felt confident I could do something about it.

When I arrived water was gushing out onto the floor of the bathroom.  The fixture had broken off, leaving the end of the fixture still screwed into the pipe (thank you cheap, low-quality products!)  So no easy fix there.  The next step, as anyone would tell you, is to turn off the water.  Easier said than done.  Searching around the house we found the valve that should shut water off to the house.  We could only give it a half turn before it stuck fast, and that was certainly not enough to turn off the water.  So the valve is broken.  Could we turn it off somewhere else down the line?  Possibly.  More looking led us to the cistern.  My teammates have a cistern, city water fills the cistern and then the cistern holds water for the house.  Usually there is a valve near the cistern.  Sure enough, there was a valve there—but it too was broken.

Now what!  A broken pipe, not easily fixed, with water gushing out that can’t be turned off.  What would you do? 

Tom's fix-it job

It is here that I am truly thankful that, not only have I had opportunity to do many plumbing jobs here on the islands, but I’ve also had opportunities to watch island plumbers at work, and island plumbers are wonderful for their ingenuity and creativity.  I’ve seen a plumber do a job with nothing more than an old flip-flop.  So, amazingly, I knew what to do!  “Get me a stick and a plastic bag.”  Well, we couldn’t find a stick, but there was about 8 inches of broom handle lying around.  I quickly got to whittling it down to size and then asked for a hammer.  Putting the plastic bag over the end of the whittled piece of wood created a make-shift plug and with a few taps of the hammer, we had stopped the flow of water!  Problem solved!

The plumber came by a few days later and properly replaced all the broken pieces.  He also informed us that the valve by the cistern was not actually broken, but purposely dismantled to discourage water theft.  (I guess I still have a thing or two to learn, but at least now we know how to turn off the water.)

It’s tempting to make a lesson here and connect this experience to other parts of life.  I’m not sure what that lesson is.  Maybe it’s that life is messy—it keeps pouring out, like the water from that broken pipe that you just can’t turn off.  Or maybe it’s something about finding new ways.  Or maybe it’s about using what’s at hand to find a solution.  Take what you want from it.  I’m just happy we stopped the water before it flooded the whole house.

Megan and new friend

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The first half of Megan’s online workshop was very engaging. The internet connection wasn’t great but she was still able to participate and the kids did great with getting ready themselves ready for bed on their own. We were able to visit and connect with an island family who recently had a new baby and whom we haven’t seen in a long time. The final days of consultation meetings for the translation project went well in spite of some illness and internet issues. 



PRAYERS REQUESTED
Three sisters on the big island (which includes Ma Imani) have been dealing with a demonic presence in one of their houses for quite some time now. Earlier this month various members of the extended families were struck by serious illnesses, several being hospitalized. One of the daughters has been manifesting evil spirits. Our colleagues have been praying with members of this family and the father of the girl manifesting agreed for them to come, but is looking to seek help from local religious leaders too. Pray with us for freedom for this family and this girl and for our colleagues and others that are involved in shining light into this dark situation. Tom has been thinking and praying about how to proceed with the men’s group he studies with— especially as we will be gone for several months this year. He is praying about who to connect them with, pray for clarity and that the men in the group would make a strong connection with one of the island brothers. Still waiting on the island proverb calendars— the print shop continues to have machine problems and continues to not prioritize it. We had a few more bouts of illness in our family this past week— pray for a completely healthy week. Pray that the second week of Megan’s workshop would go well and that the technology would cooperate for her to participate.  Our computer screen is dying, pray that we could find alternatives to hold us for the next couple months.