Sunday, June 8, 2008

Complete

We have finished the majority of the construction!
I apologize for the delay in getting an update - our internet has been down and we have been woring with a group from Kansas.
I will post pictures soon and I am confident that everyone will be pleased with the new building.
We are already scheduling women's classes for the coming weeks and the center for showers and washing clothes will be up and running in the coming days. The whole community is very excited about the way that this facility will change lives.
I will post pictures and more within a couple of days.
Be a blessing to somebody today,
Marc

Friday, May 23, 2008

End In Sight

We are closing on the end of the construction phase of this project. Great things are continuing to happen that will benefit the community.
Because of a friend that is a congressman, we were able to get a little bit of media attention on Thursday. My friend the congressman helped to get local television and news to the community to cover the delivery of a truck load of school supplies. We recently recieved a shipment of school supplies and the school in Oriente was robbed last week - so the supplies were a blessing and newsworthy. (the politico's helped pay for the shipment). All this said, when we finished at the school, I invited the 3 congressmen and several community officials to view the project. While they were all there, I was able to secure the agreement of the Municipality of Tegucigalpa to supply our water needs for FREE - my favorite price.
As of today, we are going to prepare the building for a roof - which will be instaled on Monday and Tuesday. We will be putting in the septic and water tanks on those days as well. Tomorrow the upstairs door and windows will be installed. We should have the tile ready to go and installed by Thursday and all work finished by Friday.
Thank you Lord!
Marc

Monday, May 19, 2008

Photo Update



Here are some more current photos.
The downstairs is close to completion. We will finsh all floor work tomorrow and will install toilets and pilas by the end of the week. One of the great things about a hard working crew is that we can work on the top floor at the same time that we are completing the bottom. This has enabled us to plan to put on a roof on Friday and Saturday of this week.
All is on track to finish early next week.
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc

Saturday, May 17, 2008

A Week Away

I have been in the USA for the past week (two kids graduating from Harding) - thus the name of today's report. While I have been away, work has continued and much progress has been made. I will be on site tomorrow to take pictures and get a better understanding of the work remaining. In my conversations with the crew, it appears that most of the bottom floor work is complete. The stairs are finished. The walls for the second floor are up and we will be getting a roof up this early next week. From there we will be finishing the second story floor with tile, installing the septic system and the water tower. The end of construction is in sight!
Please watch for pictures.
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Moving Along

Waiting for the second floor to dry and cure has given us an opportunity to do a bunch inside of the bottom floor. Over the past couple of days we have done a great deal of the plumbing, worked to raise the level of the floor, and started blocking in the bathrooms. Outside we have build the form and are ready to pour the stairway. By the end of this week we will be well on our way to having the first floor completed. Early next week we will be blocking in the second floor and will be ready to put on a roof. Our plan is to finish most of the project by somewhere around May 24th.
The community is very excited about our work and our progress and we hope to deliver a place where lives will be changed. Tonight or whenever you read this, please say a prayer for this little community. There are a lot of things that are severly impacting the lives of the people that live in Oriente. Food prices lead the list. In just a few months most of the everyday foods that are so very important here have gone up in price - significantly. For instance, eggs are up more than 50% in the past year, beans have doubled (or more), rice is crazy and still going up, corn is being made into fuel instead of tortillas and the cost is through the roof for people that survive on tortillas. On top of food prices, fuel prices are driving the cost of everything else up. Because of the crazy way that this country buys fuel, there is a sever shortage of diesel and that is keeping the water delivery trucks from making it into this community. Today there was only one water delivery (compared to a normal 5 or 6) for the whole community. People everywhere were looking for water today.
Even with all the problems that face this little community, the people are always smiling and happy to spend time with friends, family, and others. I would encourage any of you to come to visit us to meet the people that I have grown to love.
Be a blessing to somebody today.
Marc

Monday, May 5, 2008

The Floor!

Today we finished three weeks of work and we poured the floor for the second story.
I am sore. We "Hondo" mixed enough cement to pour a 2.5 inch deep floor - 10 feet above the ground. Hondo mixed concrete is done on the ground. You start with 2 wheelbarrows of sand, add one wheel barrow of gravel, then throw on a 100 pound of cement. You then mix all of the pile up into a small mountain. Then we make a volcano and add water to the middle portion. Normally we only mix one bag at a time however, in order to make enough for the floor, we mixed two piles of 4 bags each. We had also added 7 extra men to our crew today so that we could get this job done without going to see Jesus (in person) today. Even with 12 people working, we were all pretty much toasted from this job. It is done!
Next we will begin the finish work on the bottom floor. This will prepare the area with plumbing, electricity, etc. This work will give us about 3 days for the new concrete to dry and begin to cure.
All in all, we expect to be laying block on the second story by the end of this week. This should put us in a position to close in the project by the end of next week. Stay tuned!
Well, it is almost 10:PM here and I'm tired. I will get you another update in a day or two.
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Moving Into Week 3


All is well as we have begun week three of construction. All of the bottom floor walls and supports are now complete and we have begun the prep work for building the floor portion of the second level. Here we will build in metal beams as the initial support. We will place metal sheeting on top of the beams and then add in re-bar and 2.5 inches of concrete. All of this will take the balance of this week and part of next week. Our plan is to begin the floor pour on Friday. Mixing and hauling the concrete in buckets will take a total of 10 people working from 7 am to 4 pm. For those of you interested, the total cost of the 10 workers labor will be about $100. (minimum wage for a day is $3.50 so we are paying very well compared to many other places).

We have a target of finishing all of the major work three weeks from today. From there we will be doing detail work for a week or so and then we can dedicate this work to the community and to our amazing God.

Be a blessing to somebody today.

Marc