KAI-Peru Construction

Introduction to My New Blog

2012-01-22T15:01:00.000-08:00

Well all of you have been faithful at visiting and reading my blog and for that I am very thankful. This blogs focus was on the construction progress with Kids Alive in Lima and I intended it to be used by service team members who had been to Lima so that they could keep up with what happened when they were not here.
Brenda and I have now switched from Kids Alive to South America Mission and have moved from Lima to Pucallpa, Peru. With this new chapter in our lives and our ministry I have decided to start a new blog as well. I want this blog to be more personal, more fun and I hope that you will follow along with me as I serve God here in Pucallpa. The title of my new blog comes from a song that we would sing in my home church back in Canada and was one of my favorites. My blog is called My hope is built on nothing less... and its address is www.tyfossperu.blogspot.com. Please enjoy the blog and the posts that I put up there. Also please feel free to leave comments on the posts, I would love to hear from you.

Saying Goodbye

2011-12-22T04:26:00.000-08:00

A few months ago a decision was made after much prayerful consideration, that Brenda and I and our girls would start to look for another mission organization here in Peru with which we could serve. Being here these past 4 years with Kids Alive, we have had the opportunity to meet hundreds of people who have greatly impacted our lives and helped us along the way as we have grown in our faith and maturity. These people have come from all over, some from the missionary community here in Peru, some from the dozens of service teams that come down every year to help us, some from the national staff that Kids Alive has in place here and some from the friends that we have made in the most unlikely places here in Peru. But wherever they came from, the impact they had on our lives, some greater than others, but they all were used together by God to help mould us and shape us into the family that we are today. Personally I have spent more of my time with the service teams and lately working in Pachacamac at the Juniper Tree home. I have made many great friends through both and would like to take this opportunity to that all of you who have come down here to help us build, to help us love the kids and just to encourage us. Without you we would not be able to provide the kids with the safety and love that they receive.

Brenda has spent most of her time here in Peru at the Oasis Care Center in Manchay. There she has been able to befriend hundreds of families over the years and they have allowed her to visit them in their homes, love their children and really become part of their lives. It is a great joy for us to see the changes in peoples lives during their time of contact with the Oasis. We have seen families be completly changed for the better because of the care given to their children or because of classes taught to the mom.

We would like to thank each and everyone of the people mentioned above. I know that only a small fraction of them actually has the resourses to read this blog but most of those who don't have, we have been able to spend time with over the past couple weeks and have personally thanked them. For those of you who do read this blog, please look in the next couple weeks for a link to my new blog once we get settled in to our new ministry. I guess I had better share a little bit with you about where we are going.

We have been accepted as missionaries with South America Mission in Pucallpa, Peru. They are an established mission with a very long history in the area. Their ministries are very diverse and the opportunities to be able to impact peoples lives with the love of Jesus Christ are many. Just to name a few of the ministries that SAM provides are their aviation ministry, church plants, a prenatal center, a seminary and an indigineous center. Our daughters will also be attending a missionary kids school that is run by SAM and is right on the property where I will be spending much of my time.

We will miss all of the people who are in the Kids Alive ministries here in Lima and Andahuaylas, but one bright note is that we will be very close to friends with Kids Alive in Pucallpa. We will miss all of the many friends we have made in Lima and Manchay but look forward to the opportunities that we will have to get back here and visit. We are also very excited about the future and to see the ways that God will use us to further His kingdom.

Housing in Manchay and a new Bbq at Juniper Tree

2011-10-26T05:56:00.000-07:00

We recently had a team here from Virginia. They were an fun bunch and some real hard workers. They had a really neat story about how they just found Kids Alive on the internet, decided to come on a work trip and they all became child sponsors before coming so that they could visit their kids while they were here. It is such a cool thing. Upon their arrival it became apparent that we had a housing need in Manchay with one of the ladies in our program. She had a building lot but could not afford a house for herself but more importantly her two sons and another baby on the way. This team graciously gave of their time to level the property and build her a modest home where she can raise her kids.

A few weeks ago we had another visit from a couple of young ladies from Ontario. They had raised money through various means and had come here to help with some housing needs. In the photo above, you can see the house that we tore down and replaced with newer, more weather resistant materials. This was the home of a single mom with her two sons.

The team from Virginia, besides building the house in Manchay, also poured a concrete slab for our new laundry building and started the brick work on it, and sanded and repainted the poles from the lights around the sports court. They also started our bbq at the Juniper Tree home as seen above. We hope that this bbq will enable us to take advantage of some of the animals that we are raising for food and can be the center of many fun activities in the future.

Arrival of Baby Pigs

2011-07-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, the girls and I went down to Pachacamac to check out the perimeter wall. After the theft of the tools in December we decided that apart from building a secure lockbox and installing an alarm system, another thing that we would do is raise the height of the wall. The wall is looking great and will be even better once we get the columns finished.

While we were there I went to check on our very pregnant pig and noticed that she could not stand up. I thought I had better call in some help so I called a local pig farmer. By the time he arrived 2 piglets had been born. After it was all said and done, 13 babies arrived and they all look good and healthy. There were 9 males and 4 females.

Playground Teams

2011-07-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple months we have been preparing ourselves for the arrival of our new playground equipment. We have been finishing sidewalks, laying grass and buying tools and materials needed for its installation. Other things that teams have been doing included finishing the sunrooms at the back of each house and repainting all of the interiors of the houses. Finally a few weeks ago the team arrived to install the playground in Pachacamac. Unfortunately for us, the container with the equipment inside had not yet been released from customs. The team was here 6 days before the container was finally released.

The late release of the container meant that we had to unload it in a hurry and build the playground inside of 2 days. That meant working very long days and even working into the night. The equipment was finally done and the children are loving having fun each day on it. Included in the equipment are 5 slides, 2 monkey bars, 8 swings, a firemans pole and a tire swing.

After the Pachacamac installation was complete I was off to Andahuaylas with another team to install the playground equipment there. One thing about going to Andahuaylas that is different from Lima is the elevation. It is nearly 11000 feet above sea level. Therefor it is necessary to spend a couple days acclimatizing before starting work. We spent one such day visiting a large lake in the area and the ruins pictured above. These ruins are called Sondor and were a dwelling of the Chanka civilization. The ruins were very impressive, but maybe more impressive was the view from the top of the pyramid.

After getting used to being that high above sea level it was time to get to work. This playground was unique in that it's structure is made of wood. We could not import the original wood structure from the U.S. so we bought new wood here in Peru. It came from the jungle and was an extremely hard wood. Once we started working on it, it was obvious that the drill we had would not handle drilling the 80 or so inch and a half holes that we had to do. We searched all over Andahuaylas before finally finding a new drill that would do the job. The build was completed in 4 days and we were able to see the kids enjoying it before we left. This is by far the nicest play structure in all of Andahuaylas and word started getting around about its arrival. The last day we were there we had about 15 or so neighborhood kids show up to play.

I don't have any pictures of the playground that was built in Pucallpa, but the same week that I was in Andahuaylas, there was a team there putting up a playground. It was by far the biggest of all the structures built at our Peru facilities.

East Dayton Christian School

2011-05-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

This is the group from East Dayton Christian School. No that is not their new school uniform, that is the typical dress of the people who live in the native community of Pampa Michi. The team and myself and Eduardo went to Chanchamayo for a 2 day trip at the end of their work week. Chanchamayo is situated on the other side of the Andes mountains from Lima and is what is considered to be low jungle. Among the things we did and saw were swimming at the base of a huge waterfalls while brilliantly colored butterflies fluttered around us. We also visited this native community where we danced their native dances and had the opportunity to buy some of their handicrafts and even saw a beaver, wearing sunglasses and eating a lollipop. On the ride back to Lima we saw lots of wildlife inlcuding vicunas and llamas.

The teams time here was not all travelling through the mountains and jungle. They started their week in Pachacamac at the Juniper Tree. The team got very familiar with picks and shovels and wheelbarrows as they levelled the ground in front of houses 1,2 and 3 where they spread topsoil and manure and then laid sod. They also framed and poured 3 more sections of sidewalk and sanded and painted a few doors that were in need of maintenance.

This was a young team with not a lot of experience in construction or landscaping, but really rose to the occasion and worked super hard during the week. We look forward to seeing them back here again soon.

St. Marys / Fresno State Team

2011-04-23T16:32:00.000-07:00

We just had a team here from St. Marys University and Fresno State in California. The team had 3 leaders and 14 students who were a lot of fun. This was a little bit different team for us in that they wanted to do construction work in the mornings and then teach sports in the afternoons. The construction work consisted of tying rebar grids, mixing and pouring about 30 meters of cement sidewalks and moving and levelling topsoil and planting sod.

As mentioned above the team taught sports clinics. These took place in Pachacamac at the Juniper Tree on our sports courts and also in Manchay both at the Oasis and at a local soccer field. The kids really enjoyed learning soccer, volleyball and basketball skills. For many of these kids this would have been the first time getting actual instruction in sports. After hours the team took the chance to invite some locals for some friendly soccer games.

Calvary Baptist, Another Great Trip

2011-04-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

Another two weeks have come and gone with our friends from Calvary Baptist in Oshawa, Ontario. The team came with many projects planned and they completed all of them and then some. Amongst there projects were these sunrooms seen above. They built the bases for them at the back of each house and then completed this one at the back of house 5 and got the frame done on house 6.

The team also put up big reflector lights on our sports court. They mounted two on the tops of houses as seen above, and two up on poles on the other side of the court. These lights are really bright and will allow us to have many activities at night. This was just one of many electrical jobs that the team did including putting lights and alarm in our worshop, lights in our clothes deposit and food deposit and installed a doorbell. They also installed hose points at the backs of the houses, poured cement pads for our laundry facilities and painted houses 5 and 6 completely inside.

This week coming we have a team of university students coming to do some construction and to teach sports clinics. This is in front of houses 1,2 and 3 where the team will be pouring sidewalk and ramps up to each house. I also plan on having them dig the trenches for our weeping tile bed for our septic system and spreading topsoil and planting grass.

Just Like Christmas in April

2011-04-08T20:55:00.000-07:00

The team from Calvary has moved on to brick work for now. They are building these half walls on top of the cement pads that they poured earlier in the week. These rooms will be some sort of sunroom, that get used for the kids playing, doing their homework and eating supper.

As many of you may have heard, we had a theft of some of our power tools this past Christmas season. The thieves cut a hole in the roof of our shop and took the tools. Many people prayed that money for new tools would be provided and also have given ideas for improving security. Today we went tool shopping to buy some tools that we need to continue the work of this team. Many churches and individuals have donated this money so that we can build these homes. We have also installed a security system in the shop and will be building a lockbox to store the tools in. Please continue to pray that funds will be provided for better security at the Juniper Tree, things like raising the wall higher, more lighting and better door lock systems are needed.

Today we were also supposed to pick up our wood order for the tops of the sunrooms, but it was not ready when we called. Upon passing the wood yard on the way home I saw that they had our 4x4's cut and were working on the the rest of the order. I will pick this up tomorrow and we will begin the next stage of the project on Monday. Today we also bought 2 more lights for the sports court and next week we will install them so that the kids can play after dark.

Calvary Baptist Midweek Update

2011-04-06T18:31:00.000-07:00

We have a team here right now from Calvary Baptist Church in Oshawa Ontario. This is a church that has been here 3 times before and this time has many repeat members as well. The team has been working on pouring patios behind each house which will be the bases for sunrooms that we will be building starting tomorrow. They also installed hose taps at the back of 3 houses that will be used to water the grass and gardens. The electricians on the team spent the first day sorting out some problems we had with our electric meter and the moved into installing a doorbell, and alarm system for our workshop and lights in the shop. Today they were also installing outlets at the back of each house to plug in the washers and dryers.

This picture shows the patios behind houses 5 and 6 with the bricks stacked up ready to build. My idea right now for the sunrooms is that they will have brick walls about a meter high and then a nice wood structure above that with mainly screen to allow lots of ventilation. The roof material is still not decided but I think a nice clay tile roof would really look sharp on each one. The team also moved our food storage shop to a new location freeing up more space for our playground that is coming in July. Still to come for this team is working on many sidewalks throughout our children's home property and making some modifications to our septic system as well as installing lights above our sports court.

Back to Work

2011-03-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

Here I am back to work at the Juniper Tree. I had a couple months back in Canada, enjoying some winter activities, and visiting friends and family. My wife and I had lots of opportunity to share about our ministries in Peru. When I got back to the Juniper Tree there was lots of catch up to do as far as property maintenance. Luckily I had my friend Mike along with me who help a lot with his hard work and great ideas. What we accomplished in the week was cutting all the grass, which was like a hay field, cutting and burning many weeds and we worked on the gardens. Mike came up with the idea of making a portable pig pen that we could use to put the pigs in the garden. They could root around and work up the soil while at the same time leave their fertilizer behind. It is working great and the gardens are really beginning to take shape. Near the end of the week we started forming and pouring cement sidewalks. This was something I had wanted to do for a while as it really starts to define certain areas of the property and when we get some grass in those defined areas the home will really start to take on a finished look.

Here is a picture of the area of the garden that the pigs worked up and then we levelled and planted many carrots and cucumbers. My idea is that I will keep this section for growing vegetables that the pigs can eat. Any outstanding veggies can go into the houses for our kids to enjoy, but some of the veggies that are not so impressive can be enjoyed by our pigs. The rest of the garden I would like to divide into 4 sections and have each house look after 1 of them. They would each have their own garden plot where they could grow whatever they want and the children could learn about agriculture.

We have our first team of the year coming in the first week of April. They are a team that brings a lot of skill with them so we are now starting to prepare for their arrival so that we can keep them busy. I will have them continuing with the sidewalks and grass, building sunrooms at the back of each house, installing many electrical components such as lights and plugs and maybe an alarm. We would also like to finish off the entrance way at the Oasis center so that might be something they will work on. Later on this year we have many teams coming and one highlight will be the arrival of our playground equipment.

Crestwicke Team from Guelph

2010-10-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

We recently had a team here from Crestwicke Church in Guelph Ontario. This team was special to many here in Peru because it uncluded Sarah and Lalo, a couple who used to live here in Peru and had spent a lot of time with the children in the home. Sarah helped a lot with making decisions for hosting the team and also checking in on the jobs that people were doing to make sure they were doing okay. She also oraganized lots of interaction between the team and the children. Lalo spent all of his time here fixing the minstry vehicles. That was a need that he saw soon after arriving here and it falls under his skills as an auto repair expert. Our cars are running great now and their suspensions are better suited for the road to Pachacamac. Some of the team helped by installing electricity in the workshop. They ran the wires from the panel at the street, back to the shop. There they installed a breaker panel and ran a line of outlets around the workshop. This is going to make a huge difference in for my project for November which is installing closets in the moms rooms. These are closets that we rescued from the old children's home which I will modify to fit the openings in the new homes.

Another job that I had for this team was to decorate the pump shed that Calvary Baptist from Oshawa had built for us last year. This team had some skilled artists on it so I gave them the freedom to decorate it in any way they saw fit. It turns out they included many of the kids in the drawing and painting which the kids really enjoyed. The shed turned out great and everyone who had a hand in it should be very proud.

The team also did lots of painting and gardening during their time here. Above is our food deposit which the team cleaned and painted and then planted flowers and flower seeds in new gardens that they dug. The team also scraped and painted 3 houses on the outside and repainted 1 house on the inside. They got lots of work done in only a week here and also had time to visit a few families in Manchay with Brenda. Friday night 11 of them went home and 5 went on to Machu Picchu to enjoy the sites there.

In the next month, as mentioned above, I will be installing closets in the moms rooms and Eduardo will be enjoying vacations. Then in December my family and I will be going to Canada for 2 1/2 months. During this time my plan is to leave Eduardo making sidewalks throughout the property in Pachacamac. This will finish off many areas that are almost done and it will cut down on lots of dust. It will also help define the area that we have for our jumbo playground that is coming next July.

The Juniper Tree Goes Country

2010-10-13T01:31:00.000-07:00

If some of you remember to way back more than a year ago, there was a blog post about a team at our Pachacamac site that had befriended a sheep living on the property. Well we never could have imagined that one lonely sheep could have led to the group of animals we are amassing now at the Juniper Tree. We have started to raise rabbits. These are New Zealand rabbits which grow to be very big and will soon need to be moved to individual cages to continue to grow bigger.

We also have a pig. He is a young male and he recently had this nice new pen built for him. Now that he has such a beautiful house to live in, we are thinking it is time to start looking for a wife that he can share it with.

Our ducks continue to multiply with this bunch just being born last week. Their mother is keeping them close by up until now, but it won't be long until she starts taking them to the ducks new swimming pond that we made a few weeks ago. We also have two goats roaming the property at the Juniper Tree, helping us keep the grass cut. We are thankful that all these animals have been provided for our home and we are excited about what the children can learn from looking after them and also for the potential food source that they all provide for us.

Hespeler Team 2010

2010-09-11T17:21:00.001-07:00

To help us put a huge push on to the end of completing our sports court, we called on the crew from Hespeler Baptist Church. They brought out the big guns this year sending 4 couples, the women to supervise the men, and found Brittany from Hamilton to oversee everything. Mike started the week pumping up his muscles with some arm wrestling with the kids and they were off to work.

Here George is pouring cement around centre court. The team worked hard all week, mixing and pouring cement as well as taking some time to help with some gardening in Manchay. The ladies also did some visiting with some of the families in Manchay. Things were going well but we still felt the need to have Ashley come back for her fourth visit, just to back up Brittany.

By the end of the week, the team had accomplished what was set out for them. The sports court was 90% complete and plenty big enough for the kids to skip, rollerblade and spin their tops on. Thank you Hespeler Baptist for your continued support of our ministry here in Peru.

Starting the Sports Court

2010-07-18T18:26:00.001-07:00

We have recently been working on the sports court at the Juniper Tree Home. This will be a centerpiece for the activities at the home. We have the court about half finished and then we will be levelling the rest of the land. In two weeks we have another team coming in from Hespeler Baptist Church in Canada, and we hope to be able to finish the concrete pad with them.

The outside of our workshop is finished with the doors being installed and painted the other week. I am planning on buying some pegboard to instal on the walls inside to help us organize our tools and materials. Seen in the picture above is actually only a little more than half of the size of the finished building. This part will serve as a tool storage room and a carpentry shop.

Happy Birthday Dad

2010-07-11T18:16:00.000-07:00

Today is my dads birthday. My family is coming later this week to visit us and I am hoping to get away and enjoy some trout fishing in the Andes Mountains with my dad. I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish him a very happy birthday.

Old Friends Come to Visit

2010-07-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

The past couple weeks our friends Kim and Keith Collins have been here with their 2 daughters. This was a special time for many missionaries here in Lima and extra special for our kids who are great friends with the Collins girls. A couple years ago Keith brought a team of young people out to the Oasis to help with some landscaping. This year as well, they brought a group to help for one day. We have an upcoming family day at the Oasis, I took this opportunity to get some painting and cleaning done. The team painted the front gate and fences, the window protectors on the office and cleaned the rooftop storage area. They also sanded and varnished all of our park benches.

Shannon's Family Team

2010-07-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

This past week we had Shannon's family's team here. Some of them had been here before but it was nice for them to be working at the Juniper Tree home, since they had only seen it as an empty lot the last time they were here. The team started the week by finishing the wood trim on the new shop and then painting it.

The last time the team was here they mixed and poured the cement pad for our guards house at the Oasis in Manchay. This time they got involved one step sooner in the process and cut and tied the rebar grid that goes inside the cement. This was the start of our sports court at the Juniper Tree Home.

In all the team got 1/4 of the terrain levelled for the sports court and mixed and poured 3 sections of concrete. This project will be ongoing as it is comprised of 16 sections for a total size of 18 meters by 25 meters. This will be considerably larger than the sports court we had at our old home and will serve for playing soccer, volleyball and basketball as well as things like jumping rope and bike riding.

The team took Friday off to go visit some pre-incan ruins that are north of Lima. That meant that they wanted to work on Saturday. It was decided that we would work hard in the morning and get another section of concrete done and then celebrate a great week by preparing Pachamanca. This is a Peruvian specialty which consists of heating rocks over a fire, then putting the rocks in the bottom of a pit with potatoes and sweet potatoes. Then meat is added ontop of the rocks, in our case chicken, then sweet corn mash wrapped in husks is added as well as beans still in the pod. The whole thing is then covered in some kind of leafy herb then paper sugar bags and covered up with soil. The whole thing stays buried for a few hours while being cooked from below by the hot rocks. It was a special Saturday lunch that was enjoyed by team members, staff and children alike.

Holy Trinity Church Team

2010-07-01T18:02:00.001-07:00

This past week we hosted a very fun team from Holy Trinity Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. Our main focus for them for the week as far as construction, was framing and covering the new workshop. They worked hard and many of them discovered hidden talents that they didn't know they had. The workshop structure got done and cladded in its "Superboard" covering and they got a good start on the wood trim until our nail gun decided to get jammed.

Above is a picture of the team along with Tyler, Eduardo and Mucho Machi. (how did Machi get so tall?) The week went so well that on the last day, the women toured several homes in Manchay with Brenda delivering some small grocery items along the way, and then we all met at lunch and decided to go tour the ruins in Pachacamac. Thank you Holy Trinity team for helping us get our workshop finished. It will serve as a base for the rest of the construction and will also house our carpentry shop where we can teach a skill to many of the teens in our home.

Door Creek Team

2010-06-22T05:28:00.001-07:00

This past week we hosted a service team from Door Creek Church in Wisconsin. The team was made up of a youth group with a couple of leaders. They worked really hard and managed to clear and level the ground for our new workshops. Then they tied the rebar grid that goes inside the floor and mixed and poured 75 loads of concrete. The floor looks great and we are now working on the structure of the shops with the team we have this week. Also accomplished by the team was cutting and installing pine trim on our clothing deposit as well as painting that building. Aside from all the work that the team accomplished in only a week, they also managed to spend quite a bit of time getting to know the kids in the home and one young lady spent some time teaching English to one of the older girls in our home. This was a great group of young people and we hope to see them return in years to come. Thank you Door Creek team for all your hard work and support.

June 2010 Update

2010-06-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

Hello blog readers. Sorry for not posting for a long time. I have been wanting to do a post about what we have been working on but hadn't gotten any good pictures. Well finally I decided it was time to post something anyways without pictures.
We have been more of a salvage team than a construction team lately. As many of you know, we have moved our children's home to its new site and that meant that the old home was available to rescue any and all materials that could be used by us our people we know. It is very likely that the old site will be sold mainly for the land so we have been removing most of the wood (wood being very valuable here in the middle of a desert) and much of the roofing material. Also being removed are many of the doors and sinks and toilets. Most of them, being quite old and not fitting into our current decorating scheme, are being taken to the Oasis where many of the families that we minister to will be able to take them home and use them. A large shed has been removed from the property as well and next week we will be installing it a the Juniper Tree home as our new work shop. This building will also house our new carpentry shop where we will be teaching the older kids skills that they can use in the future. We also removed a large structure that houses our clothing donations and we have reinstalled it at the Juniper Tree.
Recently we received a large donation that will enable us to pour the concrete sports court as well as finishing many of the final touches on the houses. We have many teams coming over the next 3 months so this is a very exciting time for us at KAI Peru construction. We are hoping to be able to advance the work alot in the rest of this year.

End of January Update

2010-02-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

Well we have successfully hosted the Calvary team once again. They were amazing with the amount of work they accomplished and really gave us a big push towards being ready for our new children's home move-in. Among the many things that the team did was installing the pressure tank seen in the picture above and built this little shed around it to protect it from the elements and the kids. We painted it white for now to protect the wood and will one day soon let the kids get creative and paint a mural on it.

Since the teams departure we have been nusy organizing different trades coming in to install their products. We had 4 more exterior doors finished and installed and have ordered 3 more doors that should be finished in a couple weeks. We have had windows in house 6 installed and just today bought the materials for the 5th houses windows. Tomorrow the countertops are coming to begin their installation. Eduardo and Roy and I will continue with the tile installation in house 6 while monitoring all of these trades.

For those of you who are following the blog with regularity may have noticed that I just changed the house numbering system that I have been using to date. From here on out we will be referring to the houses in the order they appear on the plans starting from the lower right corner being house 1 and going to the top left corner being house 6. So in our order of things we have houses 1,2,3,5 and 6 built. House 4 has yet to be built.

Calvary Baptist From Oshawa

2010-01-16T13:11:00.000-08:00

This week we have a team here from Calvary Baptist in Oshawa, Ontario. This is a team that came twice last year and quickly earned themselves a reputation for working hard and being very organized. As many of you know we will be moving our children's home into the new home at Pachacamac soon and this team is key in getting the houses ready in time. This year, because of the economic situation around the world our team numbers are down a lot so each team is so crucial.

Among the things that this team has accomplished are installing a electrical service panel at the street and completely wiring houses 4 and 5. They dug and installed a new grounding pit for the next three houses. They painted house 5 and installed its doors. They dug many trenches and laid water pipe and are installing a pressure tank to provide good water pressure to the property.

This next week the team is tackling a small building project at the house of one of the moms from our project. We have also bought tiles and will be installing them as well as toilets in house 4. As far as where we are on projects outside of the team, this week we are installing windows in house 4 and will be getting countertops for houses 3 and 4. Also in the works are all of the exterior doors for houses 3, 4 and 5. So as you can see there is a lot happening at Kids Alive Construction and as more pictures become available and as we get closer to our move-in date I will be making more posts on the blog.

International Visitors

2009-11-20T14:24:00.000-08:00

Today we hosted a work team from an international Christian school here in Lima. The kids were great fun and very hard workers. They helped us by sanding all the walls and ceilings in the 5th house and then painting primer on the walls. They also did some landscaping behind house 3 getting ready to put grass there. Another group of them helped us by digging a couple really big holes so that we can transplant some trees onto the property.

We had hosted a team from this school a few years ago at the care center in Manchay where they did some painting for us as well. These kids were so respectful and really enjoyed themselves during their time with us.

Thank you to all of the students and teachers who joined us in Pachacamac to help us further our building project there. Hope to see you next year.

The Chickens Have Arrived

2009-11-20T14:05:00.001-08:00

As mentioned a couple posts ago we now have a new, really cool chicken coop. The coop was built because we had a couple donors that wanted to buy us some chickens. We had also received some money from our missions gift catalogue. Well I hooked up with our good friend Jeff Morgan and we went for a tour of the chicken operations at the agricultural university and we brought home 10 beautiful HyLine Brown hens. They are a breed that are excellent egg layers and in their first 2 days with us they have given us 17 eggs.

The chicken coop is a huge hit with the hens although they haven't quite gotten the hang of using the nesting boxes yet. We have found eggs on the floor, under the ladder, half way up the ladder and right beside the feed tray. The hens seem very happy in their new home and the kids at the children's home are very happy to have their new friends. So the next time you come on a work team, who knows, you may be eating farm fresh eggs right from our very own chickens.

The Beauty Within

2009-11-11T04:21:00.000-08:00

As many of you who have been here to Peru this year will know, we have a pretty major project underway in our waste water treatment system. It is a system that receives all of the waster water from the houses on the property. This water enters the system at a two chambered holding tank where the liquids are seperated from the solids, the solids are then broken down by bacteria and the liquids pass on to the next stage. That next stage is a partical filter that uses plants on the surface to use nutrients found in the water. Then the water passes into a pond where aquatic plants and fish and other life clean the water further. The water can then be used to water the grass and gardens. This system takes a long time to get up to full functionality especially the filter and all of its plants.

Yesterday we were working on the fence around the system and I got the idea for this blog entry. While the system has a certain odor that is not always enjoyable, I thought that the plants and insects that are found in its filter deserve to be seen and enjoyed. I don't know all the names of all the plants that I have growing in here but this one always catches my eye and yesterday it caught the attention of this little bee that was visiting our filter. In fact we have a lot of bees coming to visit the flowers and also taking advantage of a water source.

These lovely flowers are Canna Lillies that a friend of mine, Jeff Morgan, introduced to the filter and they just love it in there. They are thriving and have numerous new flowers each day. Jeff has been a great help with this project and has been experimenting to find out which plants do well in the filter and which do not. He has found some grasses that grow amazingly well that we can cut and feed to rabbits and guinea pigs when we get them. He even found a way for tomatoes to grow, and they are not a plant that usually likes much water. He has a tree growing in there that he tells me is a great source of food for the animals as well, and he even had me plant a banana tree in there last week that seems to be growing like crazy. Other plants include water hyacinth, butternut squash and onions. All of these vegetables and grasses can be used to feed animals.

This is an elephant ear plant that I found growing in the river that flows near our property. I brought back 4 of them and planted them in the filter. They seem to be doing well so I think I will return to the river one of these days and get some more. The whole idea of this filter is to have as many plants in there as you can have, so they use as many nutrients as they can. The grasses and vegetables are also great because they can be cut down or picked which removes the nutrients and uses them for other things.

This is a little spider that I found crawling on one of the trees in the filter. His body was very shiny silver colour. I don't think it really showed up in the picture. I just marvel at God's creation. So to sum things up, this project has been both frustrating and fun. It has been a long time maturing to the point where it will actually filter the water but it has been fun experimenting with the different plants and fish. The odour has also been less than desirable but the beauty of the plants has been very enjoyable.

October Update

2009-10-29T03:39:00.001-07:00

The month of October began with an announcement that the Lima Childrens home had finally gotten approval to move to their new home in Pachacamac in February 2010. That was very exciting news but it also meant that we at Kids Alive Peru construction had a lot of work on our plates to get the new home ready. Through planning meetings it was determined that in order for the move to go smoothly we would need to have houses 1 through 4 completely finished and house 5 usable as a central kitchen. Well at the beginning of this month house 5 got underway in construction, we bought and started laying tiles in house 3 and we started planning for a team from Forward Baptist in Cambridge.

We are now at the end of October and the shell of house 5 is completed. Eduardo, Roy and myself have just about completed the tiles. We have had windows installed in house 3 and the Forward Baptist team has come and gone. During their time here the team painted house number 4, installed all interior doors on houses 3 and 4, completed all baseboards in house 3 and grouted all the tiles. They roofed a covered work area preparing for next years teams, installed many toilets, showers, laundry sinks and a water tank. They also did lots of gardening in the area of our septic system. The team had finished all the work that I had planned for them with one day remaining. During their time here we had received a couple inquiries into whether or not we could accomodate some chickens on our property. With just a day left I proposed to the team that we build a chicken coop and get our egg production underway. With a master homebuilder and a former farmgirl leading the way, the team came up with plans for the chicken coop that you see below. Not bad for one days work.

So the chickens are happy in their new home, but we still need to get the children into theirs. Eduardo and I will be very busy over the next two months. Our plan is to get windows installed on house number 4, install tiles in house number 4, probably finish the bathrooms in house 4 and find a good source for exterior doors for the next 3 houses. We are still a ways off from being able to realize our goal. In the new year we need a steady stream of teams to help us reach that goal of a February move-in so if you are feeling like you would like to help us, either financially or as a part of a work team, contact the Kids Alive office and we would be glad to talk to you.

Marieta's House

2009-09-25T08:53:00.001-07:00

For many of you who have been here to Peru in the past you will remember Marieta or at least he two very energetic children Jose Maria and Fatima. You may also know that at least once a year we like to chose a local family and help them in some way or another by fixing something at their house or making their house bigger if need be. This year we decided to help Marieta and her kids by building an addition onto their already existing house. The addition was actually the same size as what she already had so we would be doubling her living space.

The only problem with the whole plan was that Marieta was already living on the only flat piece of land that she owned. All the rest of her property was hill. Well that wasn't going to stop a determined group of guys from People Church in Wyoming. That's right Walt and his band of youngsters took on the challenge and excavated a piece of land 3 metres by 4 metres and almost 2 metres deep. Then with a team of young people from Bethel Church we built the house and were able to buy a bed and 2 new mattresses for Marieta and her kids. Something for you teams for 2010 to think about is the fact that Marieta does not have a bathroom and making one because of the type of terrain that she has would be a several day project for a willing group.

Catch-up update

2009-09-05T18:27:00.000-07:00

Well as you can see by the date of the previous post it has been a while since I have updated the blog. Sorry to all of you who follow it faithfully. I guess with a streak of teams keeping me busy I have just gotten away from it.
In Manchay at the Oasis Care Center we have laid grass in our new park area. We have poured concrete on another nearly 20 meters of driveway. We have removed the mountain of rubble from outside at the street. We have finished the new office complex and everyone is enjoying their new surroundings. Our new moms clothing business has moved into their new workshop and are turning out lots of clothing. We added another section of fencing to our volleyball court which is helping to coral the balls better. We cut out the midsection of the staircase leading upstairs of the workshop and put in a landing which is used to get to the second floor of the office building. As you can see there has been a lot accomplished in the past couple weeks. Thank you to all the work teams who made all of this possible.
Work in Pachacamac has been kind of slow for the last little while. That is not to say that it hasn't advanced at all but we can only be in one place at a time. Construction is just beginning on the 5th house which we are very excited about. The kitchen and bathroom counters have been built in the 3rd house and the 4th house has been painted with primer. A team from Bethel Church which was comprised of mainly young people did a huge cleanup on the property and then laid gravel on the driveway and some sidewalks. Lately we have started our garden project with which we will start growing food for our rabbit project. We have also gotten fed up with our water treatment system not running at optimum potential, so we consulted the engineer another time and he has us filling the filter with more plants. This week we will work more on the garden project to get some seeds in the ground and buy tiles for the third house.
Also in the last couple months I made a trip to Andahuaylas. There I visited a childrens home which has recently come under Kids Alive. I checked out the construction of their new homes and visited many hardware stores to see what materials are available. The trip was very exciting and the construction was very impressive.

First CRC Service Team

2009-06-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

This week we had a team here from First Christian Reformed Church in Illinois. The team made us about 8 park benches for our 3 ministry sites as well as grouting the floor in our new moms workshop. They also helped install the lighting and electrical outlet system seen above, which is going to let us have 8 sewing machines in our workshop, each having its own light and plug.

The team also did some maintenance in pulling out a section of brick pavers that had some serious damage and replacing them with new bricks. Keeping on with the destruction theme we got the team to cut off and break up a section of concrete that we needed removed as a change of plans was made.

One of our goals for this year as we wrap up construction at the Manchay Oasis care center, is to add more green to the property. This team helped out the cause by digging 3 new gardens and planting a big tree that one day will offer us lots of shade and about 25 other plants to brighten up our new park. Seen in the picture above are some of the park benches they made. Also not to forget the many painting jobs this team managed to do. Thank you First CRC team for all of your hard work. You guys got a mountain of work done and also helped raise money that will be used to put new window security on our new office building as well as buy tiles for our third house in Pachacamac. We here at Kids Alive Peru hope to see you again next year.

Peoples Bible Church Service Team

2009-06-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

We recently had a team here from Peoples Bible Church in Goshen, Indiana. The team was smaller thins year but still managed to get lots done. The first day we ran some electrical wires and poured the concrete floor in our new moms business workshop. The team also helped with the painting in our new offices.

After the new floor was dried the team laid all the tiles in the moms workshop and also helped with the little bit of grouting we still had to do in the new offices. This team also helped raise funds that were used to put windows in the moms workshop. Thank you George and team for all of your hard work. We look forward to seeing you again next year.

June Update

2009-06-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

First of all I would like to start this June 2009 update with an apology. I had to go into the hospital for emergency surgery and got out of the routine of updating my blog. I am much better now and so am sorry for not keeping you all up to date but hopefully after this I can be more diligent. June saw the graduation of our first year moms program and we here at Kids Alive Peru construction would like to take this oportunity to congratulate each one of the moms from the program and wish all of you the best of luck in the future.

June also saw the finishing and installation of all the custom closets and kitchen cupboards in house 1 at Pachacamac. The workshop that we used to make them told us that this was the biggest job they had ever done, thus taking so long, but the cupboards sure are beautiful. Our watewater treatment system was having trouble during this month but we now think we have figured out the problem and are working to get it back online.

Construction of house number 4 was also finished just the other day. Our goal now for the rest of the year is to finish the insides of houses 3 and 4 having them ready for early 2010.

Pachacamac April Update

2009-04-25T06:17:00.001-07:00

The past month has seen the waste water treatment system near completion and today we are finishing installing a fence around the whole project and next week we can try it out.

This past week the footings for house 4 were poured, all the conduit for plumbing and elctrical were installed and the floor was poured. This week the coulmns will be formed and poured and the house will begin to take shape.

Finally our kitchen cupboards and bedroom closets arrived this week for house 1. The work took way longer than we expected but it is very beautiful. We contracted the work out to a home for deaf children here in Lima. They have a woodworking shop where the kids learn skills and they have a side business making doors, cupboards or anything made of wood. Windows and screens have been completed on house 2 and some lovely granite countertops were installed in the kitchen.

It has been a while since we have taken a photo of the Kids Alive Peru Construction team so this week Brenda came out to the worksite to surprise us with a request. Although we don't have on our Sunday best as far as clothes, here is an updated photo of Eduardo and I.

We want to send out a special thanks to all of the service teams that come down to Peru to work with us. Without you and your help, the work here would not advance at the rate it does and we would not be able to provide the lovely homes that we have for our family here.

Calvary Baptist/LAM Team 2

2009-04-25T05:51:00.000-07:00

The past 2 weeks we have had the second team of the year here from Calvary Baptist Church Oshawa and Latin American Missions. This team is very skilled and very experienced and they go on several missions trips each year. The team completely wired and installed the electrical pannel in house 3 as well as completely painting the house.

The team also installed 12 doors and door jams in house 2. At times it was a little hectic with a guy there working on window screens and 2 other guys installing countertops.

Amongst all of this teams knowledge is a great understanding of water systems and how they can be optimised to make them more efficient. Here is a tank that was previously installed but the team need to raise to make their system work. With this sytem all 6 of our houses will be able to run off of 1 automatic level switch. Near the end of week the electricians were running out of work so I went looking for something for them to do. They agreed to go to Manchay to our "Oasis" site to wire and hook up electrical in our new office building.

Thanks very much to all of the people who came on the 2 Calvary/LAM teams and did all of the great work and were so fun to work with. Also a very special thanks to everyone who supported Calvary Baptist Church Oshawa in their CD sales fundraiser.

Pachacamac Update

2009-03-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

Things are progressing at a good pace in Pachacamac. Construction is finished on houses 1 and 2 and finish work on house 1 is 95% done with only the kitchen cupboards and closets to go. Finish work on house 2 is about 60% with doors, cupboards, windows and tiles to finish. Construction on house 3 is 95% done with only the floor to pour and the next work team is set to paint, install electrical and lay tiles. House number 4 is getting started as you can see below.

Above is the footing for house 4 with some of the rebar for the columns in place.

Above is our internal waste water treatment project. This system takes all of the waste water from the property and seperates the liquids from the solids. It then treats the liquids in a sealed tank from where they pass into a water garden. In the water garden they filter down through 4 different stages of particulate and also feed aquatic plants with their nutrients. After being filtered through the garden the water passes into the above pictured pool where we are able to raise a fish called Talapia which our families can eat. The excess water from the fish pond gets pumped out into our irrigation system for our gardens. This system will be finished and functional within the next 2 weeks.

Calvary Baptist/LAM Team

2009-03-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

This past week we had a team here from Oshawa, Ontario. This team had a good mixture of men and women and of Spanish speakers and non Spanish speakers as well. The team mainly worked in Pachacamac completely painting house number 2, installing electricity in house 2 as well as installing an electrical panel at the street and running conduit and lines for future buildings, they installed a water tank on house 2 and did a lot of clean up and prep work on house 3. Besides all this they managed to pour 2 more sections of driveway in Manchay and in the photo above you can see a special side project that they did. This is a retaining wall at a womans house in Manchay. Last year when the municipality came by to put sewers in they knocked down her old wall. They never came back to fix it so with some money that had been donated this team went and built her a nice, new wall. Thank you very much Calvary Team for all your hard work and we look forward to your next visit to Peru.

Clearing the land in Pachacamac

2009-02-23T22:38:00.001-08:00

This week we have a team here from London, Ontario from a company called Forest City Fire Protection. The team has done some painting, grouted the floors in the second house, built a fence and cut and burned all of the vegetation on the proprty getting ready to plant our garden. Above is a before picture of the weeds and brush that we had to clear.

This is the after picture. We managed to get dirtier doing this job than any other job I have ever done with a team. Even though these guys are from a fire protection company, it turns out they are pretty good at starting fires as well because we got the brush burned up just as fast as we could cut it.

This is the start of our new waste water treatment project that we are putting in. This facility will allow us to treat the waste water from all of the buildings on our property, use it to raise fish and reuse it to water our gardens and grass. We are very excited about this project and cannot wait to see it completed and up and running.

Mitchell Swaback Foundation Service Team #4

2009-02-07T06:25:00.000-08:00

This week we have the Swaback Foundation with us for their fourth year. This group of guys are very skilled and can always be counted on to get lots of quality work done in a short period of time. The team is working in Pachacamac, putting in shelving under sinks and in hall closets as well as tiling the second house.

In Manchay they are tiling our new office and studding and drywalling the office partitions. They are also building some custom desks for the offices and hanging all of the doors. Thank you very much guys for you ongoing support of the ministry here and for your hard work each day.

A Saturday Trip to Pachacamac

2009-01-24T19:04:00.000-08:00

Today Brenda and the girls and I along with Eduardo made a trip to the worksite. Even though it is Saturday we had to get the showers put in so that the tile workers could keep advancing.

Here is a glimpse of what they have started in one of the bedrooms. They had all 4 bedrooms in house 1 to this stage.

Even Luz the sheep came in to inspect things. She must have liked what she saw because she didn't stick around to tell us what needed to be changed.

While we were inside working, the girls were outside finding something fun to do amongst all the construction materials. After a while, the girls came inside and helped by sweeping the floors for the tile workers.

For those of you who are wondering if things are on hold in Manchay at the Oasis, it is quite the opposite. Things are really moving along there as well. Eduardo and two others are working there everyday doing bricklaying and getting the floors ready for tile. I have been busy doing the layout for the new office and boardroom. I will take some pictures on Monday and post them.

Kings Collegiate Service Team

2009-01-23T18:28:00.001-08:00

This past week we have been priviledged to have a service team here from Kings Collegiate School in Oakville, Ontario. Their school sends many missions teams all over the world and this year for the first time they chose to come to Peru with Kids Alive. They were a very fun group of young people who managed to have a lot of laughs and still got lots of hard work done. With them we painted the inside of both houses and took out some trees. We levelled the backyards of both houses and laid down some sod.

This is a picture of the sheep that we have running around on the property. The kids some how managed to name her Louse and trained her to eat mint cookies, corn chips and cheesies and to drink Gatorade. Louse loved the fact that we planted grass because in the days prior she had been seen chewing on cement bags and plastic coated wire. Louse was a very dedicated friend to one girl on the team named Steph Collins and I know Louse along with everyone else here in Peru is going to miss the Kings crew very much Thank you guys.

Decorating the first house

2009-01-23T18:07:00.001-08:00

This week has been very busy with trying to get the first house into move in condition. We started with the windows. In the above picture you can see the sliding glass door that will lead out to a patio. All of the windows will be able to slide open and will be fitted with screens to stop mosquitoes from entering.

The next installation was the electrical panel and all of the lights and switches and outlets. While we still fail to have electricity from the municipality as of yet, we will have the house ready for when we can get approval.

Next many hours were spent in the tile stores trying to match paint samples to tiles. But with much perserverance, Leo and myself decided on some nuetral, earthy tones that will be very durable and easy to wash while still looking very nice in the house. Today I was out at the jobsite, and the contactor came to begin laying the tiles. Once they are down the house will really take on a finished look.

Our next item for having the house be ready was to take down some scrubby trees on the property and to lay some sod. We had a service team here from Canada who worked very hard in the January sun to get this job done.

Also today we had two men come from a local school for deaf students, who are going to be making all of our armoirs, kitchen cupboards and doors for the house. They took all the measurements that they needed and were going to buy their materials.

As you can see the house is really coming together but still has a ways to go. Now that I am back and at the jobsite everyday, I will keep you posted on the progress.

It's Good to be Home Again

2009-01-23T17:54:00.001-08:00

As many of you know, or could tell by my lack of blog posts, my family and I spent the last 4 months in Canada. Our time was very much enjoyed and we did many fun activities with friends and family. Now we are back in Peru and the work has begun. When I was here in September our contractor started construction on the first two houses in Pachacamac. Well now construction on them is done and the finish work is being done in order for our older boys to be able to move in. While we finish the inside of these houses, construction on the next two is advancing.
We very much missed all of our friends here in Peru and it is great to be back here with them.

We are going home!

2008-12-31T05:31:00.000-08:00

Well the Foss family is set to return to Peru on January 7. We have really enjoyed our time here in Canada, spending Christmas with family and enjoying many winter activities together. We have managed to stay in contact with many of our friends in Peru and are really looking forward to reuniting with them and spending some time getting to know them better.
While we have been away, the ministry has been moving on, so we will need to get caught up and prepare for the start of the 2009 service team season. Also while we have been away, our team has been joined by a new family. The Chadwicks have come to Peru to look after team hosting and child sponsorship. This will be a real blessing to our team as we have been understaffed for much of last year.
Please pray for our return to Peru, for our preparing for the teams and also for our getting to know the Chadwicks. Please continue to pray for the ministry as a whole in Peru, for the new children's home site in Pachacamac and for finances for the ministry.

Update from the Foss family

2008-12-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I realize it has been a long time since my last post on the blog. As many of you already know, Tyler and Brenda and family are back in Canada for a few months. 3 Months have passed and we have 1 more to go. This month is going to include Christmas so we are quite excited about being able to spend the holiday season here in Canada with family and friends. Don't get me wrong, we are going to miss all of our friends in Peru very much but we feel this will be really good for our daughters to be here enjoying all the snow and reconnecting with friends.

I have had a few updates from Peru and have heard that the first two houses in Pachacamac are fully constructed and the final fixtures and paint are being completed. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement during our time in Canada and we look forward to getting back to Peru and continuing to be effective in our ministry.

Service Teams 2008

2008-10-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

Well, our 2008 service team season seems to have come to an end. While we could still host teams until the end of the year, it isn't likely that people would still have vacation time to use in this year. Our service teams this year were from Southwest Baptist University, a church team from Indiana, the Swaback Foundation team from Illinois, Jon and Dave from New Jersey, 2 teams from Peoples Church in Wyoming Ontario, Cedar Creek Church from Ontario, 2 teams from Hespeler Baptist Church in Ontario, and Forward Baptist Church in Ontario. We also had lots of help from individuals and our friends Keith and Kim Collins sent many of their visitors to help us as well. Sorry to anyone whos details I didn't get correct, but having just taken over teams midway through the year, I didn't get a chance to get to know all of you really well. As for where we are on our workload, Manchay is within half a year of being finished Lord willing, and Pachacamac is underway with the first couple house started and is poised to host work teams for the next few years. Thank you so much to all of you who made this construction season a huge success. Next year is booking up fast so if you are interested in coming to help, contact myself or any of the Kids Alive offices to find out more information.

Forward Baptist Work Team and Liberato's Wedding

2008-10-06T16:45:00.000-07:00

I recently returned to Peru, to host the latest work team from Forward Baptist Church in Cambridge, Ontario. The team had 11 members and we got lots of work done. The team did lots of painting, overhauled our flower gardens, put in two laundry sinks, took down and stored away all the wood forms from our new building and poured concrete on 3 sections of our driveway. I don't have any photos of their work but as soon as I can I will post some. Along with the work they were able to accomplish and sightseeing, the team also got to attend the wedding of our care centre guard, Liberato. The wedding was a big affair and the team stayed and danced into the night.
Thank you Forward Baptist Team for all of your hard work and for making the two weeks lots of fun.

Pachacamac Update

2008-10-06T16:28:00.001-07:00

I know, finally an update on the blog. Sorry everyone, but our family recently returned to Canada for 3 months and shortly after doing that, I went back to Peru to host another team. That meant I was without a computer for 3 weeks which prevented me from posting on the blog. During my time in Peru our contractor started construction on 2 of our 6 houses.

Because of soft soil on the property, the contractor had to lay down stone and pack very coarse sand as a base. They then dug trenches and put rebar forms in them as the footing for the houses.

Finally all the trenches are filled with concrete and allowed to dry. In the last couple days I was down there, the contractor was starting some of the brickwork. As many of you know, this project has been a long time coming so we are very excited about the progress being made.

Building Update

2008-08-23T19:16:00.001-07:00

With our last two teams from Hespeler Baptist Church we have framed and supported, installed roofing bricks and rebar on the second floor of our new building. Since the last team left Eduardo and I have installed all of the plumbing and electrical rough-in and framed in what will be an outside access to the three apartments on the second floor. Today we brought in a crew of twelve guys and poured the concrete. Above you can see their cement mixer as well as bucket hoist that they used to get the cement up to the second storey.

This will be left to dry now for the next three weeks and then with our next team, from Forward Baptist Church, we will take down all the forms and supports and begin the columns for the second storey. As mentioned above this building will have three apartments upstairs and the main floor will be used for office space and a workshop.

Saying Goodbye to Dave and Connie

2008-08-16T05:58:00.000-07:00

This week has been Dave and Connie Rhodes last week in Peru. After 8 years service here in Peru with Kids Alive, they have decided to return back to the U.S. where they can be closer to family. As you can imagine after 8 years there were lots of people who wanted to say their goodbyes and so it has been an extremely busy week. On Tuesday night we had a party at the children's home with all the house moms and kids, all the office staff and all the staff from the Oasis. On Wednesday Dave and Connie went out for lunch with their landlords and then at night we had a dinner with our Peru missionary family. On Thursday night we went out with the boys, where we enjoyed a big meal of chicken wings, ribs, and steak and then went and shot some pool afterwards. Yesterday was a busy time for the Rhodes with looking after some paperwork and things but they managed to come out to the Oasis, Dave for a quick picture with some of the guys and Connie for a goodbye presentation by all of the children. Dave and Connie have been here in Peru since before the concept of a care centre and have been very instrumental in its development. Connie with administrative duties and Dave with planning and overseeing almost all of the workteams that have built this amazing facility. Dave and Connie, many thanks from all of us, we will miss you guys a lot and will be praying for you and your family as the Lord leads you.

Thank you HBC Team 2

2008-08-09T04:59:00.001-07:00

Today we are saying goodbye for now to our service team from Hespeler Baptist Church in Cambridge, Ontario. This year Hespeler sent down 19 people to work at our Manchay "Oasis" care centre. The teams accomplished so much at the centre as well as visited many of our families that we minister to in the community. Pictured above is one of the highlights of their trip. Since the care centre has officially been named the OASIS, which it truly is in a desert of poverty, we figured we had better get some green on the property. We now have a lush green front lawn and our name spelled out in brick pavers which you can see as soon as you enter the door. The teams completed numerous jobs which included advancing our new 2 storey building almost to the point of pouring the concrete floor. Thank you Hespeler Baptist Church for your continued love and support of our ministries here in Peru.

Our First Leaky Roof Project

2008-08-05T18:41:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, along with the team from Hespeler Baptist Church, we helped our first family of our Leaky Roof Project. We met this family through a friend of ours and thought they were good candidates for our new program. Their house had a roof made of cardboard, and old tarp and some really old roofing materials.

Pictured above is the finished house with its leak free roof. Even though we get next to no rain here, there are still hazy and misty days when water can gather on a roof.

While there, we decided to build this stone staircase to help the family climb to the back of their property. The family, which consists of a single mother with two daughters, was very appreciative of our help. We hope that through community outreach programs such as this, we can reach more families for Christ.

Well Done

2008-08-03T04:27:00.000-07:00

The digging and forming of our well in Pachacamac is finished. We are in the process of buying a pump and hooking up a generator to get the water to the surface. The well is not as deep as we anticipated, but the contractor digging it said there was too much water for him to continue which is a good sign. Although our Pachacamac home will more than likely be tied into the municipal water system, our well will serve as a source for our water for the many fruits and vegetables and other plants that we hope to be able to grow here.

Tyler's Wedding Anniversary

2008-07-19T04:57:00.000-07:00

This is a little off topic for a construction blog although some things we just can't let slip by. Today is Tyler and Brenda's 11th wedding anniversary. This past week our family took some vacation time and went to Paracas in southern Peru. We had a great time and went on a boat tour out to some islands where we saw dolphins, sea lions, seals and penquins. We had a great time and were able to get some much needed rest.

HBC Peru Crew 1

2008-07-13T08:09:00.000-07:00

This years HBC Peru Crew 1 went home last night. Our entire family long with Ashley Campbell, who is staying for 5 weeks, and Leo went to the airport to see them off. During their 7 days here they accomplished lots of work. They continued our paver brick walkway another 30 feet or so, they took out more Manchay rocks and put down 20cm of topsoil and sod, they completely framed in the ceiling of our new building, they bent a lot of rebar ties, they did some painting, and made friends with many of our children and moms. Yesterday the team got to visit downtown Lima and Miraflores, we went to the indian market, and they tried to go paragliding although the wind wasn't cooperating. Here is a photo of the team amongst more than 350 "pie derechos" or as they named it "The Manchay Forest" which they installed. Thank you team, and we look forward to seeing you back next year.

Hespeler work team progress

2008-07-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

Our home church, Hespeler Baptist, is sending down two teams this year. The first one is here now and they are working on various jobs around the Oasis care centre. Shown above is the newly laid sod in front of our guards house. We have worked on digging out the gravel all week and spreading top soil. We can say with some certainty that we have the only lawn in all of Manchay.

Shown above is our new two storey building that we are currently framing for the second level floor. We still have a lot of framing to do and rebar to put in. Our team is also working on laying brick pavers on walkways and bending rebar for our columns.

First 2 Metres

2008-07-09T15:05:00.001-07:00

Today I got down to Pachacamac to buy some supplies for the well construction. The crew had dug down about 2 metres and the ground was already wet. It was very cool to see the different layers of earth up the side of the hole. As progress continues I will get down there more often. As it gets deeper i will try to take some pictures from down below.

Well-That is a deep subject

2008-07-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

Today the three of us headed down to Pachacamac with plans in hand and measured out the location for our well. We met the contractor who is going to dig it and we discussed depth, diameter and materials to go into the walls of the well. The guy said that usually after 2 metres you will encounter water and we decided that he would aim for 8 metres depth for the finished well. He and his crew are going to start on Monday and they are digging the whole thing with shovels and picks. He estimated 20 days till completion. This is our first step in beginning construction of our new children's home on this site. With the water from the well our building contractor will be able to mix his cement and get started on our families houses. How exciting! Check the blog later in the week and I will get some pictures of the progress of the well.

Thanks Jon and Dave

2008-06-26T15:18:00.000-07:00

Today we said goodbye to Jon Hayes and Dave Facente seen above with Eduardo. They are two young men from New Jersey who came down for a month to help with construction in Manchay. During their time here they helped dig out an area for our next team to landscape, they levelled our driveway ready to pave, they helped pour the floor of our new two storey building as well as form and pour 25 columns and sanded and varnished our playground at the children's home. Jon and Dave are extremely hardworking guys and we are very thankful to them for all that they accomplished. Their stay here in Peru was not all work as they managed a few outings with the team from Cedar Creek, they went paragliding, and worked the door of a very busy Peruvian city bus. Jon and Dave, we are going to miss you guys and please know that you are welcome to come back anytime.

Welcome

2008-06-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our first post on our new Kids Alive International Peru construction blog. We hope that our work teams and other supporters will be able to use this blog as a tool to stay up to date on our progress on our various ministry sites and projects. The above photo is of our Manchay Oasis care center. This project is in the final stages of construction and we are looking forward to soon starting work on our Pachacamac children's home site.