In preparation for their arrival, we had several intense days working on books and getting them in shape to include in the digital library section of our program. We endeavoured to change the appearance and add colour and pictures to make the books more appealing. I realized (better late than never I guess) that my staff, having never read books, had very little idea of how to make a page look more interesting. Some crash courses and demonstrations later, we were all on the same page ... so to speak.
New students are arriving every day and we have several NGO’s making inquiries about our program. It is exciting to be on the cusp of something big (we hope). A visit to the head of the Comayagua region educational system started out cool but, after seeing our new and improved power point presentation, he was very interested. So interested, in fact, that he phoned the deputy minister and asked about our program and then phoned us ready to sign on. We have been confident that our system is the best of show in Honduras and these past two weeks are showing that others are also impressed.
At the same time, we tracked down two new types of stoves being made here in Honduras. Both use the Rocket Stove principle of combustion but one is movable and the other is stationary. It was such a pleasure to see them. The stationery one, Lucy (model name ... the stove that is) has good potential to incorporate a water heating system in the chimney. The makers, who came to talk to us about the stove, were quite pleased with the idea and, after I showed them a Jompy water heater (courtesy of my trip to Kenya), they were very excited. We can use gravity/convection and the waste heat to heat a small tank (200 litres) of water for domestic use. The babies should be rather pleased to have a warm bath I should think.
On Friday, we went to see yet another form of building using the Poured Earth concept. Gradually we are narrowing our search for a cheap yet durable building system that is within the reach of the poor. This may be one more piece to the puzzle.
We have had some cold, rainy weather. Once your body becomes accustomed to plus 30’ weather each day, a drop into the high teens seems like bitter weather. Of course, none of the people suffering mid-winter storms have any sympathy for our plight. I enquired from some of the guys working with me on a housing project if they had any family to rent for cold nights. They all thought they could spare one or two kids and still be warm enough themselves.
Manuel has been putting up with flooding in his barrio and the resulting backed up sewers, transport delays and so forth. The other day, in a crowded bus, his cell phone was stolen. He is hopeful that he can recover the information on his contact list from the phone company’s computers. Wednesday will see if that is the case.
This weekend was an adventure in cultural expectations. I keep hoping that I will get over these but ... sometimes I still get caught by surprise. I still like to make plans for the week and am never sure how to respond when others’ lack of planning leads to sudden surprises. Ah well ... it happens everywhere. How to live with chaos ... the challenge so far for January :)).
We are very hopeful that project funding will continue to roll in and that our project will be approved by those we have applications in front of. With the potential of some rapid expansion it is exciting but a wee bit daunting at the same time.
TTYL
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