Making Clean Water in Mississippi

March 22, 2007

Well, they said this was going to be the killer day of training, and they were right. We started the day at 8 am (not bad), but didn't get finished until just now (around 9:30 pm). But it was a great day of learning, sharing, and enjoying this great Mississippi weather.

Today, my team (103 - Treatment Systems Installation) spent the entire day at the "third world" training center getting hands dirty building the treatment systems, firing them up, and watching the water leak, spurt, and finally flow. They have built a very realistic concrete block and concrete roofed structure (similar to what we built in Belize) to house the water treatment training section. And we are located next to the lake here at the Camp, so we are pulling real, slimy, ugly green lake water up to our building (via solar panel-powered pump), treating it, and then seeing how well we do. One older guy drank our first run treated water and after only 3 hours is about 15 years younger.....great stuff. Dave Mullins and I are in the 103 section and have learned how to build and operate the cadillac system now, so we are ready to implement the system where ever God takes us. Tomorrow we learn how to maintain it and bottle the treated water. It was a great day for us.

One other part of the day was gathering back together with our Section 101 (overall mission project management) and Section 102 (public health training) friends in small groups and sharing what each other was learning so far. That showed us how critical us having people in all three sections really is, and how dependent we will be on each other to properly scope out a location and have everything (and everyone) ready for a successful installation.

We're having worship services morning and evening, and Arelene would not be impressed with our congregation's singing abilities. But she would like to know we are singing in Canon.....There's been a great spirit in this place.

Tennessee is playing basketball now, but we have no TV's. A few are trying to pull it in by internet, but I refuse to play that game. So, I'll call it a day and find out who won tomorrow.

Go Gators,

Tim Bob Myrick