Acting like desert dwellers trekking across the Sahara, Americans can barely walk or drive a block without having a water bottle close by, lest risk wilting in the suburban wilderness between fast-food joints. And it's been a long time since most Americans have had to pump water from a well, but for millions of people in Mozambique, having a well would be a step up.

Helping to provide potable water to that country are members of New Hope Seventh-day Adventist Church, in Fulton, whose members will be drilling wells in that south African nation in July.

To that end, about 80 volunteers hauled and packed 32,000 feet of PVC piping into 40-foot sea containers Feb. 24, which will be shipped to Mozambique, a country thirsty for clean, local water.

"In some places, the average person has to walk four hours one way to get water and if they're carrying a bucket on their head, by the time they get home, even some of that water is spilled," said Dave Wooster, New Hope church member and coordinator for the project.

Wooster's dad is a master well driller and his access to materials and his expertise has been a definite asset to a project that will keep thousands in that sub-Saharan nation from drinking bacteria-laden surface water.

The group will be working in the province of Maputo where the wells drilled will be about 150 feet deep and providing clean water that can be extracted with a hand pump. The 120 wells the church hopes to build may provide enough water for 25,000 to 30,000 people.

Not a drop to drink

Millions of Mozambicans were refugees who have returned to their home after fleeing drought and a long civil war, a population looking for stability and a way to grow their nation economically. Other Third-World problems are prevalent there, too.

"After 30 years of war, they came back and their infrastructure is destroyed," Wooster said.

The church is also building a school, along with digging wells and offering medical care. Some members of New Hope church who are doctors or nurses will be part of that 40-member group heading for Africa this summer. The church is still fundraising for the project and will be holding dinners and a day spa at the church to raise money.

Though Wooster has never been to Maputo, he's seen pictures and knows that they'll be in living in the bush during their two- to three-week stay, without a Hilton or Hyatt hotel in sight.

"As far as living conditions, there are some thatched huts and some block houses, but a lot of churches and schools are held outside under trees because there aren't any buildings. We'll be staying in tents and sleeping on cots on the Maranatha compound," Wooster said.

Maranatha is a nonprofit group that is working with New Hope in its efforts.

A much larger organization, Maranatha is providing a drilling rig and its goal is to have 1,000 churches built in Mozambique, each with a well and also to build schools. So far, they've completed 10 churches and their first school is operational. The churches and schools will serve other uses, including as sites for AIDS awareness and literacy programs.

Maranatha builds the schools and handles fundraising efforts in the United States, but once the buildings are completed, they are handed over to the locals.

Ripple effect

Monty Jacobs, a Maranatha board member and member of New Hope church, also wants to build a long-term bond of friendship between the youth of the schools and churches they're building and the youth in his church.

"I'm hoping we can keep contact with them and that our kids can put together school bags with things like pens and paper to send over to them," he said. "Because of the war, there's a whole generation there who have no education."

Jacobs said that teachers are coming into the country from Brazil to help educate the population, because Portuguese is one of the primary languages there. (Mozambique, a republic, was a colony of Portugal until 1975.)

Though living conditions are primitive for volunteers, Jacobs said he's not too worried about the safety factor of working in a once war-torn region.

"There's not much of a safety issue due to politics or religion, but because of the extreme poverty, there is out right banditry. We had a warehouse broken into, but that could happen here, too," said Jacobs, who has high hopes that the drilling will produce large quantities of water.

"If that drilling works well, the water can go into storage tanks for irrigation and it will ripple out from there. If people don't have to spend all their time hauling water they can be doing other things. Having water will be a tremendous blessing. We take so much for granted here," he said.

While the wells may not bring the 21st century cascading into Mozambique, it's hoped that the water work will lead to a steady stream of successes in developing infrastructure, commerce, and agriculture so that more internal strife can be averted.

"People there are tired of war, they really want peace," Jacobs said.

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