Filters - Up and Running

The water filters are nearing completion. Two were given a test drive this afternoon and are working fairly well. It will take a few days for the last of the small particles to settle and things to get functioning. Then it will take a couple of weeks for the population of good bacterial levels to get started growing.

Since talking to you last.

a. The championship happened. A small village team beat the city team so great celebration. The lights were dimmed before the game for an encouraging display of fireworks. The switch to do the dimming was a young man on a tall ladder with insulated gloves who just disconnected the power. Then, after the fireworks were done, he reconnected everything and all was well.

b. Carlin made the return trip without incident. Now she is an old hand at public transport. This week she will prepare English lessons for presenting to students next week. Lots of activities with friends have made the evenings fly by. A trip to the ocean on Sunday gave the 'winter-white' Albertan some super glow.

c. We met with people in the Education office in San Pedro Sula on Friday. Things are much more positive after that meeting and tomorrow we have a meeting to get the needed paperwork to form a separate school which will be under the local Principal rather than an office in Tegucigulpa. It means less paperwork for us, an opportunity to enhance our program even more and a better certificate for our students. As always, I am very cautiously optimistic. Two weeks will tell.

Inside of the filters - More photos later this week

Tela Beach Bums - 2 Latinas and 1 Wannabe

d. Manuel has been using the 'hay basket' technology faithfully in his home. It has made a noticeable difference in gas consumption. A tank which usually lasted for four weeks has lasted for more than six. That is exciting.

e. Still more students coming in to register. A couple of church and community centres are getting organized to start as well so that is encouraging.

f. It is so nice to be on the receiving end of seeds and seedlings. A friend of Manuel's has been bringing different seeds and plants. Last week he brought in the leaves of one plant (a shrub from the Chaya family) and made a wonderful drink. It did not last very long in the office. We have one of the plants now growing in the school grounds. It is only about 15 cm tall right now but is putting out new leaves so that is a good sign. Today he brought two tiny, tiny hot pepper seedlings (my house help's daughters thought the seeds I was drying looked too much like garbage and so threw them out - gnash) and another new plant. He went away with Malabar spinach and mint. So - we both won. We shall see how the seedlings take root in their seed bags.

On a visit to the orphanage, we got some branches of a curry leaf tree. Carlin and I planted the cuttings in bags and, two weeks later, we have over twelve which are pushing out buds. Will see if a few more of the smaller cuttings follow suit.

Thanks for following along.

TTYL

BB