With Rajasthan behind me, Although the memories of that project are still so vivid in my mind, I move onto the next one which will be a home building project for The Fuller Center for Housing.
I am currently building a new team of intrepid adventurers to go with me to Las Penitas. That is near Leon in Nicaragua. Situated on the coast, it is apparently a surfing area but not being a surfer I doubt that will enter my consciousness at all. It is also a fishing area and most of the local inhabitants are employed on a temporary basis in the fishing industry.
We are not talking great big trawlers here, we are talking small boats with a couple of guys and a net going way out to sea at night and catching whatever they can. Their market is the local restaurants and villagers that can afford a bit of fish now and again. But the guys who risk their lives to catch these fish are not the ones selling them, that would be the chap who owns the boat. And as you would assume he keeps the lions share of the booty.
Some men go away to work in neighboring countries or into the coffee plantations to earn money and return home to their families once every 3 or 4 months. To say the least, they don't earn a great deal, maybe enough to scratch by and keep food on the table if they are lucky. What they really struggle to do is keep a roof over the families head. Mostly they live in shacks made from corn stalks with plastic sheeting stretched over to keep out the rain. What it doesn't keep out is the cold, the damp, the disease, the mites and bugs that live in the corn stalk and mud floor. All those sorts of things that endanger the children's health.
They cook on open fires. You need to read my blog on Guatemala to understand what that does to the health of the family. I just hope that at some point we can also start to install eco-stoves here, but at the moment there is not a manufacturing facility nearby. Who knows maybe another project to be looked into.
So what am I doing to encourage new team members to join me?. Whilst the Fuller Center has the trip details posted on its web site, I have been mailing my many many followers who receive email updates about upcoming trips, contacting previous team members and advertising wherever I can for free or a negligible sum. Last year I advertised on a UK website called Gumtree and received a load of enquiries which amounted to nothing. I realized I had not worded the add in such a way as to explain exactly what I was looking for. I thought I would give it another go this year and make sure I worded it properly. Whilst the response has been minimal, it has been quality, in fact one person signed up, that makes it all worthwhile on its own. But I have had another call which also sounds as though it will materialize into a new recruit. Fingers crossed. I have also had great results from friends on Facebook sharing my post and their friends sharing so as to spread the word.
I am currently at the 50% mark with members from the US Canada and the UK. Also plenty of people hovering on the outskirts of commitment. And still plenty of time to go before cut off.
After I finished in Guatemala last August, I traveled to Nicaragua to meet the team of dedicated "Fuller" guys and girls who hold it all together down there. They are an amazing team and I am so looking forward to working with them in November. They took me out to the project area to see exactly what they had been doing to date and what was still required I met families who had already received the benefit of a Fuller home and those who were still waiting. It didn't take much for me to commit to a project there. The need is so great.
So what can you do to help? Spread the word for me, tell everyone to visit my page at the following address and hey.... why not get involved yourself..... now that's a radical thought
http://fullercenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Ray-Fowell-Nicaragua-Nov.-16-2.pdf
Or drop me an email to rayfowell@gmail.com
That's it for now. More updates to follow soon.
A Fuller Center House in Las Penitas
No comments:
Post a Comment