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.

Thanks Jon and Dave

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

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.