Wow - A Month

For the past ten days, in addition to keeping things going at the school, we have hosted two Canadian visitors, a father and son. The father, Bruce, and I worked with the same organization (MCC) in East Africa twenty five years ago. He was in Somalia and I was in Northeast Kenya.

 

Testing the water

Column Blocks - Bruce and Carlos

Column Block and U shape mold

Edgar, Bruce and me - Planting seeds

Bruce is one of those amazing people who can look at something mechanical, understand how it works, why it works and how to fix, modify or replace it with something else. I am always in awe of that type of skill. He was here to see what types of things we are doing and to see how they can be implemented in Haiti where he is working with various groups. Fortunately, we had a few things to look at.

Last week we visited Siguatepeca where we saw a Waterstep water purification system. For less than $2,000 this system was installed and is capable of purifying 38,000 litres of water per day. Imagine what a difference that can make. One of these has been installed in a primary school and the children are able to get clean water for their homes. The principal says he already notices a difference in attendance and the ability of students to participate more fully because they do not have stomach problems. This is likely the new system we will use in our next housing project.

We also tried out two new block molds ... with varying success. The good news is that we now have a model to work from. The welder was involved in making the blocks so now has an idea of what was lacking. These two types of blocks should save time, money and lumber. One type is already being used in other communities but not here in Santa Cruz.  The column type block is not yet being used. We will find out next week if builders are interested. The first blocks are curing now and need a couple more days to get hard enough to work with.

 

Closer look at the tup - Cucumbers sprouting ... enlarge the picture and you can see them.

Bruce brought with him some drip irrigation supplies. He and Edgar spent a morning putting a short run together. The cucumbers are up and we wait for the other plants to sprout. This type of system will be of great value for small gardens as well as larger plantations. Even though we get plenty of rain in a year for trees, the sporadic nature of several months a year makes it difficult to grow vegetables. This system can be used on a large scale as well. In Ontario, a man used it for 40 acres of corn. In a side by side test, the field with drip irrigation got 280 bushels/acre and the one without 80. We will work with this more over the next few months.

Land conflicts are an ongoing problem. We met a group of 50 families who are being pushed off their land by a "landowner". Haven't heard what the final verdict will be. In our own case, a housing project is being held up by unexpected negotiations and intransigence. I always think of how hopeless it must be for the ordinary Honduran when facing these kind of difficulties. I have options and some connections. They don't.

Thank you for following along.

TTYL

BB