Our First Leaky Roof Project

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.