CLEAN WATER PROJECT AND FUN WITH THE KIDS

Water project location

Closeup of  typical bathing facility

On Monday and Tuesday we went to an area outside Solo where our church has a major clean water project in process.  The project is done in cooperation with the local villages.  Our church  provides funds to buy the materials and construction management while the villages provide the manual labor and a local water committee to manage and maintain the facilities after construction.  The water comes from high on the mountain and flows through PVC pipes to concrete reservoirs and plastic tanks which branch out to supply water to several villages.  In each village there are several community washing, bathing and toilet facilities (MCK's) which receive the water, approximately two dozen in total.  Water is also available to be piped into each house for a small monthly fee of about 50 cents.  The individual home hook-up is voluntary and is managed by the local water committee.  The price is set to cover the cost of maintaining the system. Currently, community members carry water two times a day, sometimes quite a distance, to obtain their water.  It is expected that the project will benefit over 28,000 individuals.

House with community bathing facility in front yard

Water tank at top of hill

MCK under construction

New Facility (MCK)

While Russell was out hiking up the mountain and observing the status of the project, EIleen went to two local schools and worked with the children.  It is beautiful in Central Java.  The air was clear and we could see Mount Merapi clearly.  Mount Merapi is a volcano that blew it's top a couple of years ago, and caused quite a few deaths and a lot of damage to the area.  The location of our project is on an adjacent mountain side.

Village street

Main water reservoir

New  water tank

Typical locals

I (Eileen) was able to go to two schools, and a couple of mother- infant health clinics to do nutritional counseling.  When I arrived at the school with my translator and another sister missionary, the children came running out of their classrooms and were all waving hi to us.  I wasn't sure how to gain control of the situation as there were 700 elementary school age children the first day.  I started singing the first few words to a song I had heard before called Di Sini Senang.  It means I am happy here. All of a sudden, 700 children joined together in singing the song.  It was beautiful.  Good thing, as I didn't know all the words. I also started singing a song about climbing the mountain which I learned from my Indonesian tutor.  All the children sang along.  It was very appropriate as I soon learned some of the children had to walk 2 hours to get to school.  The mountain was very steep, and at times it rains very hard in Indonesia.  It made me feel a lot of empathy towards these children. They must really want to be educated.

I was taken into a classroom with 125 children, some with 5 to a desk.  They were all of the 5th and 6th grade classes combined for my presentation.  I used glitter to teach them about germs.  I put different colors of glitter on each child's hands and then had them shake each others hand. They loved seeing the glitter transfer from one person to the next.  Then they all practiced hand washing in a bucket.

Local Women

Later I went to a mother/infant clinic.  The children seemed well nourished, but many babies had heads with the backs of their heads flat. We talked about the importance of tummy time. Many mothers were concerned that if they put their babies on their stomachs, their children would get a stomach ache, or they might have something worse happen.

Waiting for our arrival

With new toothbrushes

Children brushing teeth

Eileen teaching antismoking

On Tuesday when I arrived at the school the children were all lined up in a row, military style. I told the teacher that we could go in the shade which we finally did.  We went over hygiene, gave each child a toothbrush and toothpaste, and some children of the children practiced toothbrushing.  We also talked about the importance of not smoking. When I asked how many of the children's father's smoked, every single child raised their hand.  I conducted a puppet show with the interpreter. One puppet had pink lungs, and the other had black lungs.  The interpreter's puppet wanted my puppet to smoke with her because it was cool, then I said (in my best Indonesian with the puppet) why it wasn't cool.  Soon the children were laughing, and at the end, they all repeated together "just don't smoke", and got a sticker.  We then taught some English songs to the children which they loved....the Hokey Pokey, Happy Birthday, Do As I Am Doing, and some others.  The children had fun and so did we.  At both schools we were asked if we could come back and teach English on a regular basis. It is too far away for us to go, but perhaps the other missionary couple might go.

On the second day there were some problems at the maternal clinic with babies being sick and malnourished. The mothers asked why their babies always coughed.  I suggested that perhaps they might try and keep their babies away from cigarette smoke, and also the fertilizer in the fields as they hold their babies in their arms as they fertilizer the fields.

Hokey pokey-where are your ears?

It was great to be with the children. They are beautiful, friendly and eager to learn.