Bangs Pumps and Concussions

A couple weeks ago, dad returned from South Africa with a new pump to replace the one that was stolen. Yesterday, he and Pastor Pensulo (one of our right hand men) began to get things ready to install the new pump. First they wanted to get the depth of the hole to know how long to cut the plastic pipe, so they fitted a metal rod to a rope and let it down… It caught on something and most of the rest of the day was spent fruitlessly trying to get it up.
We have heard through the grapevine that the people who broke into the pumphouse claim not to have gotten the pump, and that it fell into the shaft. Whatever we caught we hope it is the pump, it is definitely solid and though it has come up several meters it is still 15 or so down there.
This morning dad and Pastor Pensulo were going to continue working on getting the pipe up along with whatever it is dragging. I was helping with some other things around here. Around 11:30, I went down to help with some drainage works that we are doing along the path behind our house. I was about 100 meters from the pumphouse but not in view of it. I finished what I was doing and decided to check on how things were down there. As I headed down Pastor Pensulo appeared and asked me and another worker to come and help him. He said dad was feeling a little dizzy and was resting. Which I thought was good after all why should he have to do things when there is help around, but he likes doing things himself.
We went down there and dad was lying down, said he was fine but just a little dizzy. We began to use the comealong and other equipment to get the rope taught again. It had broken and been tied. While we were doing this dad threw up. At first I thought he must be coming down with malaria again, but then he began to continually ask, “what are we doing now?”
Then Pastor Pensulo mentioned that they had been pulling on the rope when it snapped and they both had fallen down. I then realized that dad had a concussion. He didn’t want to walk up to the house and lie down, and said he felt fine, just a little dizzy. I went back to the house and got mom since she can do a better job of getting him to come up that I can. I steadied him and walked him up.
Later I got more of the story, Pastor Pensulo said that dad was unconscious for 2 minutes after he hit the ground. After he gained consciousness he was laying down and felt dizzy. He didn’t feel the pain in the head for over a half an hour, by that time we had him up at the house lying down there.
He is fine now and coherent, but he still doesn’t remember anything of that first half hour, including throwing up and my steadying him and leading him home.
We just thank God he is alright and hopefully he will feel better tomorrow.