And Construction Begins!!!

On Wednesday our mason and five community members showed up at the escuelita at 7am to start the process. This week they have focused on building an "aledamia" which is a platform around the edge since we are building on the second floor. On Monday we will begin with the concrete columns. I'm not sure how long that will take, but the following step will be rafters and the roof.







Overall, it's going pleasantly well. I went to a PTA meeting last week where everyone was excited to begin working. However, today one community member (who had not atteded the meeting) decided to raise hell insisting that we have to build the roof with terraza (concrete) instead of lamina (corrugated tin). There are many reasons not to build with terraza including the elevated cost, the plans we have are for lamina, we've already started building, he didn't come to the meeting, and the integrity of the building with the added weight. But the community, teachers and I stood strong and we will continue as planned.

Take a look at my photo album of the project on facebook. I will update it hopefully weekly with the construction process.

ahttp://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048121&id=27500355&l=13251df35e


The bottle project is not the only thing consuming my time at the moment. We are also about to start construction on the sanitary landfill in Agua Caliente and we are nearly done with trail construction on the mountain. But don't worry, it's not all work that's consuming me. I am enjoying spending time with my friends in town and just soaking up the Guatemalan life, like taking 3 hour lunches so that I can make chicken soup from scratch. Tonight I was lucky enough to wash my clothes in a washing machine... I felt guilty!

Last month I checked out where I will be volunteering in June and July (not PC-related). It's called Ak' Tenamit in Rio Dulce, Izabal http://www.aktenamit.org. Back to the jungle for a few months! I'll be helping them with grant writing and living right on the river which flows into the Caribbean. Not bad, eh?

Bottle Classroom Progress

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've become tired of my computer and internet, thus I don't use it very often. I will, though, at least try to keep you updated on the progress of the bottle classroom, as some of you reading this have contributed to our project and I'm sure would love to know what we're doing with your money!

First off, I'd like to thank those who have donated:

Patricia Varas
Stacey Gunther
Lauren Sherwood
Peggy Squires
Allison Millar
Lynn Olavarri
Bob Heck
Carl Franzblau
Les & Audrey Ayers
Beth Eddy
Dale Dow-Vern Delk
Rexius Forest By-Products
Ralph Satterberg

Thanks to the support of these people and businesses, we have received $793.50 toward our goal of $2865. In addition, we have received in-kind donations from some community members here in San Carlos Sija.

With the funds that we currently have, we will begin building the columns on Monday. After that, we should still have enough money to put the roof on (before the rainy season comes!). For the walls and the finishing details we will have to wait for more funds to come in, be it donations (hint hint) or grants. We wrote a grant proposal to a Guatemalan governmental instituton ProRural to help us with the remainder of the project. They sounded very interested in the project and verbally committed to helping us. Hopefully that verbal commitment will turn into a formal commitment! We should find out within the next month.

I will post photos as we start construction!