This first photo is of Oscar putting a finish coat of cement on the outside.
For the second pour, I used a lot more vegetable oil on the nose part to try to get it to release. We took the inner part of the mold out this Tuesday. No mishaps there.
This photo shows the inside of the first filter. Notice the small tube sticking out of the side at the bottom (Click on the picture for a larger view). This tube runs up the wall and pokes out about 2/3 of the way up the side as the outlet. You may also see that we neglected to vibrate one portion of the wall near the top. Oscar filled in this evidence nicely a couple hours later.
This last photo is of the mold completely disassembled. The next day (Wednesday), we put the mold back together and poured the second filter. This time, I wore myself out with the vibrator (A stick of re-bar slightly bent at the end, stuck into the chuck of my cordless drill). We are waiting until Monday to take the whole mold off at once.
In other news, I went to the beach this last weekend with the Bethel students. We got in one and a half games of Settlers, and lots of pool volleyball. I got neither sick nor sunburned, a vast improvement over my previous trip.
On Tuesday afternoon, all of us working in El Gorrion had a meeting to discuss our projects, vision, etc. The biggest consensus was that water supply should be the first priority. The idea had been going around to take water from the spring-fed creek below the community and pump it up the hill. Oscar and I took the initiative to go check out the feasibility of the project. On Wednesday, we went down to the creek and hiked up it as far as we could without a machete. According to my rough estimate, there is about a gallon per second in the creek now (the driest part of the year). There is also a waterfall of about 15 feet a hundred or so yards inward. Also, the water is very clear. Anyway, we went back yesterday with a machete and survey equipment (a speed square, a plumb bob, and a 100ft. tape). We determined an altitude difference of about 76 meters between the community's water tank and the creek level at the bridge, with 444 meters walking distance between the two points. However, we could not survey the creek yet, because the community leader still had not talked with the landowner of the area with the creek. As of today, we are waiting until next Sunday, when we will go up the creek with more people from the community to do the survey. I am very excited about this project, especially because a ram pump seems like a very feasible solution.
Please pray that everything will go well with the landowner, that we will be able to supply this community with water.
