Success in Yalbac

Today was a very different day from yesterday. We arrived at Yalbac to see that the students at the school, were ready and eager to see us. There were only 9, but more than half of them had been there last year, when Chuck and Ann Hansen of Swarthmore Rotary had done the clean water education portion. Chuck, Dan, and Aki Fukai inspected the board and found that good records were kept and that all seemed to be in order with the board. Some concerns that we had about the availability of raw water were not justified.
We chose to start our session with the children with the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. We even got one question about the theology of the story! We then used the curriculum to have the children make construction paper representations of the jug being lowered into the well. We had put “glow in the UV” lotion on our hands and shook hands with each child as we passed the peace with the children. We then showed them with a UV light that they had gotten “germs” from our hands even though they could not see them. We talked about how you can wash the germs off with good hand washing technique. The children had been taught hand-washing hygeine in school and knew that you did not need drinking water to wash your hands in. They could also name all the circumstances in which they should use clean drinking water! Others will have other things to say about Yalbac and the 2 other sites visited today. BUT, I only want to say Alleluia, Alleluia. Thank you Lord, you have allowed us to help the people of Yalbac have clean drinking water.

Dale