This is the first of 2 e-mails today from us to you. This is the technical data - where projects and funds are.
1. Roof on director's house - complete, 1 leak still present, welder has been notified & materials are there at the house to fix. I spoke with Pablo several times about the old metal roof, he has not set a price, he "needs to count the metal pieces and see which are bad and good." I'm pretty sure he thinks he'll get a better deal from you than from me, so he put it off. The pastor offered an even trade for his services, so the price should be AT LEAST 1900 limps - worth more than that. The metal is still on the property despite several insistences by me that it be removed, the plan is for his uncle (Tia - the lame one) to move them this weekend, although I think the plan was to put them up by the wood pile, despite my clear statement that you want them off the property. The children run and play near the pile of metal, Wanda is beside herself that this is a disaster waiting to happen.
2. Biedelina house - complete, with dedication service went well. I dropped off a replacement toilet seat for one broken by workers, she is still in the rental house but has keys and is very excited to get into new house. The kids are greatly excited.
3. Fence at property - should be complete today. Omar is finishing the stucco & welder has to install the metal, which is completed and waiting for installation. The welder is paid in full, as he finished his part. Omar and Roldan & Jose will need paid today, money in envelope sufficient for this. The fence is done. In response to the request by Garden City for work that the women could do, I bought 10 gallons of paint (2 5-gallon buckets) from Lionel himself - the pressure was on, I did not check sufficiently, and there had not been enough time for the wall to dry; in addition, there was a wall conditioner that needed to be applied prior to painting - so I did not have the ladies do any painting. There are 2 5-gallon buckets of paint at the house that have not been used. Lionel told me directly that no-one uses oil paint for fences, that it does not hold up to rain, etc. and that the proper paint was an acrylic paint. I actually confirmed this with 2 other people prior to accepting his word, so I bought an acrylic paint - but it was a stock paint, not mixed, so it could be returned or exchanged. We will need to buy and apply the wall conditioner prior to painting in either case. As it stood, we had a field day with all of the children from BOTH programs Friday, so the ladies would not have been able to paint anyway. The team greatly enjoyed the field day.
4. "Gerson's" house (clinic house) - We installed new roof caps (wider) as the old ones were not sufficient - numerous leaks along the ridges. New roof caps appear to have solved the leak problems. New screens have been installed (Bobby & co) with the wall channel for suspended ceiling, but decided against installing the ceiling until doors are installed. Doors are purchased (very expensive - I will cover this in 2nd letter) and paid for, also I bought all of the hardware for installation and left it with Omar, the doors are locked in the container. They are very bonita! All paid for & Omar has instructions. Money will be needed for the suspended ceilings eventually. Omar should complete the doors by next Wednesday (needs pushed sometimes). The Garden City team attempted some of the concrete work, but it was not very smooth, and I gave instructions to Roldan to chip it out and re-do it. All of the work projects at the clinic will be completed by Omar, all materials are bought. Only money needed will be Omar & Co. pay by NEXT Friday. The septic pipe will be fully repaired by them, they have the materials.
5. Water tower - I have bought a huge pile of gravel and another of sand for this project, but the stuccoing at Biedelina and at the fence has consumed some of the arena, so more will be needed. I have bought cement sufficient for the feet of the tower and for most of the columns, but did not have sufficient funds for the wood for forms or for the rebar for the terrazo. It will take Omar through the end of 2 weeks from now to reach the point where he needs additional materials. He might need more sand the middle of the second week. I have discussed the 5000 liter tanks with Lionel on several occasions, the price is still 14,000 lempira each (!!!) and we were unable to find them any cheaper anywhere in San Pedro Sula. He will only need 4 days to order and obtain the tanks, I told him it would be at least 2 weeks more until they were needed. I took Omar and Roldan to the Aqua Azul hotel to see the concrete supports under the deck, and have strongly advised them to put diagonal braces between the legs of the tower for triangulation strength, as Angel did beneath his deck. They have the plans, it will only cost a little bit more to put these in. Omar and Roldan both agreed that it would be a lot stronger. Additional funds will be needed for this project, as follows:
Arena - 3000 limps, from Tigre
Materials - 15,000 limps, from Lionel
Tanks - 20,000 limps from Lionel
Labor - 4 weeks at 3250 limps = 13,000 limps - I don't know if it will take this long, outside figure.
Labor detail: Omar is well paid. Roldan is nearly as good as Omar, better on a lot of things and works a bit harder - He has said nothing about the pay, but I think he's worth all of 1250 limps a week. I (of course) did not do this but am recommending it. Omar has a brother (I forget the name) who is the best concrete finisher I have seen - he did an excellent job on the outer stove at Biedelina's. - we paid him 600 limps for 2 days work. If needed in the future for big projects, he should be used.
6, Transformer for Los Pinos - I hope by now that you have heard that Chet Thomas has agreed to allow MOM to put in a transformer for the school at Los Pinos, in fact he assumes that it would be available for all the community, and he is happy with that. The Garden City team was very touched by the Los Pinos experience, by the program blossoming there, and they left a total of $1800 US for the transformer. Pablo has been working on the transformer situation, and has been unable to get a reasonable price yet, but theoretically is working on it. We thought the $1800 would be sufficient, and Cesar (Pablo's brother) has the ability to install it, but the numbers we have heard are far higher than the original quote. More on that later. I will send you a copy of Chet Thomas e-mail to me - I printed it off and showed it to the team, and they were greatly pleased at such a quick answer to prayer.
6B - meeting at Los Pinos Tuesday - Most of the parents AND Ernestine attended the meeting. I had all of the older children attend, those that would be able to pay attention to difficult material, and I think that it was blessed.
1. I spoke and Pablo translated, I spoke about why Wanda and I had come, presented the Gospel message and drew the "crossing over" pictures to help explain;
2. I spoke about the 3 paths that the children could take - the "do what you want" path, the "grow up, marry, have kids and live in Los Pinos like your parents" path (which I told them was fine if that's what they wanted), and the "education and making good choices" path which could lead them to college and career, perhaps returning to Los Pinos as a teacher, a doctor, etc. I asked the parents which path they wanted for their children, and was very surprised and pleased that there were plans for a doctor (Yaniris), a lawyer (Marvella), and a senator (Cesar) in the group, among other things. I tried to communicate that there were people willing to help good students who stayed on track morally to achieve their goals.
3. I spoke about problems with intermarriage in a small community, with biological facts and illustrations. This was difficult, as their has been considerable intermarriage already with some consequence, but I felt that the message was important, This was well-received.
4. I spoke briefly about the transformer and what needed to be done, but stayed light on this, as I was not sure how soon this could be accomplished. I also asked about needs that we could be praying about, there were several families that needed houses built, or roofs installed, I told them that this would be a matter of prayer first. As this risked moving into a gimmie mode, I closed the meeting, Pablo prayed, then I left to visit several people in the community medically, removed the last of the stitches from Jacqueline, Gerson and I prayed over an older man with lung cancer, and Pablo stayed at the meeting (unknown to me) to conduct the gimmie session.
Since this is "newsy", I will copy this letter onto the blog. The second letter to follow will not be on the blog.
Financial details are as follows:
Money in "Water tank" envelope = 3200 Limp
Money in "Lawn Mower" envelope = 11,200 Limp
Money in "Transformer" envelope = $1800 US dollars
All SUMC and casa money has been used. All receipts are on the desk; total of receipts is much greater than the envelopes contained as we used about $400 personal money for some of the purchases - it was left over as Angel gave us such a good rate on the room.
Rick
Copy of Chet Thomas letter:
Hi Rick,
Thanks for making contact. We would be delighted for you to hook up the community of Los Pinos. When we ran in the line we told them that we did not have the money to put in a transformer for them and of course they wanted it donated. We said that they would need to raise the money and put it in themselves but that we would give them permission to hook up the lines without any cost, even though the lines belong to us for several more years.
Recently they asked us to run them a line down from the center but legally you could lose your service as the electric company does not allow you to provide electricity to your neighbors. If so done and they find out , and they will, you will be fined and then your line will be taken out so I informed the community last week that we could not do that.
But we are very open for them putting in the electrical service.
Blessings,
Chet
___________________________________
Lic. Chet Thomas
Executive Director
Proyecto Aldea Global
Work: (504) 239.8311, 239.8400
Fax: (504) 232.6511
Direct USA: 305 433 2947
Web: www.paghonduras.org
From: drrickt@aol.com [mailto:drrickt@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 5:59 PM
To: chet@paghonduras.org
Subject: Los Pinos
Hello from Mission on the Move Santa Elena/Los Pinos
This is Dr. Rick Thomas, my wife and I have been living in Honduras for the last 2 months, and are overseeing feeding programs in Santa Elena and Los Pinos, also doing some medical work, particularly in Los Pinos. We spoke with Alba at the resort there, and she thought that we should communicate with you. We have become familiar with Alba through visits there to the resort facility.
We are quite familiar with stories relating to the Los Pinos community and the electricity that goes thrugh the town to the resort. Our feeding program is at the school there, and we attempt to keep food at the school, sending a week´s supply at a time. 27 children are currently being fed there, and the food issue is a struggle. We would like to ask if there is any possibility of running electricity to the school for the purpose of maintaining a refrigerator and freezer for the feeding program. There is a pole right across the street, and we would be willing to buy the transformer and get the power installed so that this food could be kept fresh. We are committed to the Los Pinos community, and would gladly make this investment in the program there.
Let us know of your thoughts on this matter. Alba felt that it could be considered, but, of course, she is not the one to ask. Thanks for considering this. You may respond to me at DrRickT@aol.com or to Steve & Hope Shearouse at Steve1Hope@aol.com. Once we hear from you, we will begin the process of raising the funds, if you are favorably disposed to it.
Rick Thomas
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