Dick writes about the group’s first visits to Water to Thrive water projects!

Today is Oct. 14; our first day of water project visits! We awoke this morning to some beautiful weather. Today we are headed north toward Axum and we’ll be visiting our first water project. The first two hours of our drive, we descend about 5,000 feet from the Simien Mountains. We get to enjoy many beautiful vistas and a beautiful waterfall near the road, while navigating many switch backs.

The project we are visiting today is Mai Aye, the sixth project funded by Gloria Dei. It is about an hour’s drive off of the main road on some very difficult terrain, but it is so worth it because we had an awesome visit with the community. This water project is brand-new, only being operational for a month. The group gets to install the plaque and enjoy this moment of celebration with the community.

During our visit with the community, an 82 year old priest shared his gratitude of having access to clean water for the first time in his life. The community shares its joy with us by sharing some delicious coffee, ambasha bread, and popcorn for the celebration.