130811 CARAS SONADORAS

CARAS SOŇADORAS

After a meeting this week with ASODIFIMO, one of our wheelchair partners, they surprised us with a an amazing gift.  They gave us, refusing payment of any kind, a beautiful painting called “CARAS SOñADORAS” (the dreamy faces).  Bernardo Montero in the blue shirt  left front is the primary artist though everyone at ASODIFIMO each took the brush to place a little dab of paint.  These faces are seen a lot in pictures across the country so it will be a wonderful reminder of the Dominican Republic when we return home in 6 months.



 

We also attended a conference sponsored by ASODIFIMO and listened to 4 hours of long winded, flowery, passionate speeches of which the Dominicans are really good at.

MONTE PLATA CHICKENS

The only other thing of significance is that Wallace drove to Monte Plata by himself and worked some more on the 1^st chicken coop with the Guerrero family.  We got the concrete floor poured, the door installed and chicken wire in place.  The coop is turning out very nice as planned including the cost being very close to what we predicted.

Unfortunately there was no water in the public water pipes the day of construction so we used the water in the 55 gallon barrel the family always keeps on hand due to frequent water outages to mix concrete.  The water ran out right during the middle of a pour and in the process of trying to smooth the concrete surface.  With concrete hardening, the family and Ramon got in a big discussion about the problem.  They turned to Wallace for a solution.  He said, “No, it is not my project.  You can figure it out-- Work together to come up with options to solve the problem and recommend what you want to do.”   They started working together and figuring out solutions.  One solution proposed by a brother was to use the water that was running in the ditch at the bottom of a ravine right next to the house.  There was indeed plenty of water.  But the lady of the house said “No Way!  It is contaminated!”.  That is very true.  The water is filthy and probably carries a multitude of diseases.  So they ruled that option out.  Option 2 was to ask the neighbor for water.  They did and the neighbor brought some bottles with water that had been taken from the same filthy ravine!  So that option was ruled out.  The 3^rd option was to put the empty 55 gallon barrel in Wallace’s truck, go to the church that has its own well and transport water from there.  The group agreed to that solution.  We hauled water in the truck and saved the day.  It was nice to see them working together on a common problem and coming up with a joint solution that worked.  The rest of the day went well.

The above picture is leveling the floor before pouring concrete.  The next picture is how they mixed the concrete directly on the sidewalk in front of the front door.  They wouldn’t even consider using the wheelbarrow to mix the concrete.  At least they didn't mix dirt with it this time. They used the wheelbarrow to haul a very stiff concrete mixture to the back yard where they dumped it into the coop floor area.

 

Sister Guerrero putting the finishing touches to the chicken coop.  The men did the work.  She got the glory.  She is very very happy about her chicken coop!