Thursday, September 17, 2009

Fountain Head

When you think about digging trenches in the Peace Corps, you wouldn’t think they would be for your landlord’s new barbecue/fountain/picnic area. But, that is what I was working on yesterday.

My landlord is building a barbecue/fountain/picnic area on the road coming into our village. It isn’t too uncommon for people in my area to work on projects like this. In fact, on the 14 KM stretch of road leading into my village there are no fewer than 3 picnic areas (depending on if you count the tipped over cable-spool under a tree, which, I do) and at least 9 fountains.

It has been quite fascinating to see how to build a fountain. The fountains are supplied from natural springs that are all around the mountain. Once a source of water has been identified, rock, sand and plastic-sheets are used to create a collecting pool. Plastic pipe is ran from the collecting pool to the place the fountain is to be built.

Concrete is poured into the shape of the fountain. There is a reservoir to hold incoming water and a spout that pours water into a basin which holds the out going water. On some of the fountains, water flows out into troughs for animals to drink form. Every fountain has been dedicated to someone who has passed away.

The fountains make hiking around the mountain much more enjoyable. Not only do you not have to carry water but, they are all unique and fun to look at. Some of the older fountains have algae growing in their basins, some have many different spouts and some are quite useful at keeping bottles of beer cold. Each fountain has a different aspect to it that give it’s character.



Hopefully all this talk about fountains hasn’t made you too thirsty.

Joke:

-Why would you lie about how much coal you have?

-Because you don’t want to tell anyone you’re a miner!!!!!

1 comment:

  1. When I die, bury me in Bulgaria, or just build me a fountain here in the States

    Miss yooouu!

    ReplyDelete