Day 5 halfway thru

Hard to believe it's Sunday and that we just have a couple days left to work. Today was a great day to relax, explore and reflect on our collective contributions and learning experiences so far. We still have sanding, staining and painting to do (turns out the stucco has to dry for a couple weeks before being painted! We learn something every day.), but we now have hinges on all the windows, cables run through most of the electrical connections, several rounds of floor cleaning completed, and a continually improving relationship with the community. We are still working on water access and sewer drawings, but hope to buy water and sewer piping and ceramic tile for all the floors tomorrow. We also plan to have a formal meeting with the foundation board tomorrow night (rescheduled from Friday).
Other escapades this past week;
We brought 8 suitcases up to the community on Saturday and distributed toothbrushes, shampoo, soap, tennis shoes and baby clothes to the children and mothers of the community. Probably the most exciting gifts of the day were the soccer uniforms, distributed to children from age 2-10, boys and girls, to form 4 teams. All 4 teams got dressed and played and were awarded prizes of nerf soccer balls to share and continue playing. We recognized the need to clear a better play space, but to see the kids in such fabulous uniforms was very exciting for all of us. Thanks to Darcy Hartman for her efforts in collecting these uniforms in Columbus! We distributed donations to about 110 children and as many mothers as could be present (about 25). The community was full of joy and vigor and showed us all kinds of love with handshakes and big hugs and kisses!
Ernesto, our fearless project leader, also learned that the inner community nearest the home is called San Rafael - seemed fitting since Ralph is called Rafael and has saintly patience for the construction process!
Saturday afternoon we attended a traditional Quechua music festival called Taquipayanacus, a kind of traditional jokester singing contest. We were surprised to be the honored guests and to be seated in the keep at the soccer stadium - the closest possible seats, and to be recognized from the stage several times. San Rafael radio was the sponsor of the festival, too. Rhonda was our official photographer - she is waiting on her press vest, but should have one by the next trip.
Sara and Ralph went to church and met up with Mike Timmer. Many contacts have been made in the past week and resources seem to be within reach.
Most the group will shop at the Cancha tomorrow for souvenirs and Ralph and Connie will shop for construction materials. We'll try again to get photos of the process loaded soon! David and Sarai send their love to Maria and all those at home!

Day 1 back to work

Day 1 here in Bolivia is complete and I'm about to go get coffee and likely find out how sore the group feels after such a day. We were thrilled to see the interior ceilings and walls almost completed with stucco and the door and window frames in when we arrived yesterday. We worked all day on sanding the windows and cleaning extra stucco off the floors and purchasing materials to paint. Ralph and Lisa got all the ceilings painted once (Felix was stunned that we didn't water the paint down and that we didn't plan to hire a painting expert - we have one already!). David (one of the neighbor kids) and Ronal spent the afternoon with us, playing and helping. The stucco workers spent the day as well. We now have a plan and supplies to paint the whole house and stain all the window frames (hope to complete this in the next 2 days). We'll venture out to buy ceramic tile for the floors. We got the scoop on getting access to water and electricity and now have to make a plan for the sewer. We also worked with the President of the community to call a general meeting for the community to deliver some simple supplies we brought as donations from the States, including tennis shoes for kids, shampoos for women and crayons for all. Should be another exciting day - I'll try to get a photo of Ronal up tonight along with some work pictures.

Next trip gearing up!

It looks like we are going to have 12 travelers to finish up the first building in March. We are very excited about finishing the final stages to make the first house liveable for 8-10 kids and their new parents! Ralph De Jong has made a great contact with Mike Timmer who runs a similar project in Cochabamba (we'll get his permission to share his blog address here and post it for you), so we can collaborate on Fair Trade marketing to benefit the wider communities as well as hopefully get some construction ideas and support. The Paredes family has been here in Columbus to present new ideas and a project budget to get us through this stage - so everyone keep hoping and praying for us to complete this important step in 2009!

Day of the Dead Fundraiser Success!

Thank you to all those who participated in our Day of the Dead Fundraising Event. We generated more than $700 in cash gifts for the project, bringing our savings account to @$1460. We will bring these funds with us, along with countertop and other donations, when we travel to aid in the next phase of construction and development. We also are partnering with OSU student group Nourish International to raise funds and travel with university students to Cochabamba. Arts Scholars students are also planning a fundraising pancake breakfast. Other support has recently been received from Grove City Presbyterian Church. Go team K'illallaray!

Challenges in Bolivia

Bolivian politics are hot these days with the Bolivian President, Evo Morales, on the outs with the U.S. Ambassador, our plans to travel in February may be affected. Look in the news for updates on the Santa Cruz desire to secede. Beyond that, the orphanage development is slower than we had hoped, but we continue to support its daily activity. Right now the community does not want us to have access, so the Foundation is considering the purchase of a parcel of land that would allow for the construction of a path for construction materials. This month Global Gallery representatives will be presenting to previous and future partners in the project and beginning to plan for our big fundraiser, the Day of the Dead celebration. Look for updates here!

A Floor for the Kids!

We just recieved this picture of the finished floor - and the installed electricity. Exciting!!!!! Maybe we'll have the first family in this year!

Family Restoration Project Information

The Paredes family first introduced themselves to Global Gallery in the Short North in the year 2000. They had been traveling the country together (Felix & Flora – the parents, Richard & Nilda –their adult children, and Nilda’s daughter who was quite young at the time) selling alpaca sweaters and accessories and other handcrafts to Fair Trade stores. Felix and Flora had both begun as artisans and had been trading in the Andes among tourist shops and local communities for a long time. They felt they had been called, with the blessing of a US visa, to share this skill with a wider community, and began traveling to the States in the 1990s.

In 2004, Connie De Jong (Global Gallery’s current Executive Director) received several grants to do research in South America as part of graduate research at OSU. The 3 month trip ended with a visit with the Paredes in Cochabamba. After visiting several communities and hearing the stories of the community center efforts, we did an assessment of their community building initiatives. From that time, Nilda began to contribute her dream for a community project that would serve the needs of orphaned children from the area in and around Cochabamba. In 2005, Global Gallery donated $500 towards the development of architectural plans for the orphanage project.

In 2006, once the architectural plans were complete, Global Gallery donated $5000 towards the beginning of construction of the orphanage. The site of the orphanage was property that had been purchased by the Paredes family years prior and sits on a small hill in a community just outside Cochabamba. It is surrounded by tiny acreage of family farms and sits a half a mile between 2 public schools. There is a small strip of local stores several hundred feet from the site. Clearing of the land began in 2006 as plans for a Global Gallery delegation visit was planned. While our February trip plans were foiled by the government’s successful efforts to take control of Bolivia’s significant natural gas and oil resources (previously controlled by international governments and companies), we managed to reschedule in April and the foundation for the first building was complete. As the first story walls were completed, our small delegation of 4 helped fill the dugout floor with rocks from the property. We met Ernesto who was committed to directing the efforts of the orphanage and learned of the direction the plans had taken.

At the same time, the family was working on formalizing handcrafts marketing and community project development through the creation of a Foundation. In 2007, the Bolivian government approved the application for Foundation status and IFAT (International Fair Trade Association) acceptance followed close behind. The second story of the first building on the orphanage site has been completed, along with a rock wall that circumvents and protects the property. Global Gallery donated $1000 from countertop collections to the project in late 2007 and delivered an additional $3000 on our 2008 visit. Global Gallery currently can accept donations in any amount towards the project. As a non-profit organization, Global Gallery is able to offer individuals and corporations a letter showing that donations are tax-deductible according to U.S. law.

Ernesto and his wife, the project directors in Bolivia, have worked with orphaned children their entire lives, even though their own financial resources are extremely limited. Ernesto introduced us to one of the children he helped raise, a young man who lost both his parents to cholera, who was working on the construction of the first orphanage building, and earning day laborer wages to save for classes he intended to begin soon. Ernesto worked carefully with the Foundation to develop a plan for the orphanage that is culturally relevant. The concept of the orphanage is to be a Family Restoration Center. The Foundation will work with the Bolivian federal social services agency to identify the children most desperately needing placement, as well as screening orphaned children from artisan partner communities through this system. Each home (there will be 4 home buildings, each with 2 stories, for a total of 8 family units) will house a parental unit along with 8-10 children of a variety of ages. Each home has 2 bathrooms, a master bedroom (for infants and parents), and a girls room and a boys room, as well as a common living space. The center will house 80 children at capacity. Children will attend the local public school, in walking distance from the center.

The Center will also include a communal cooking area so that cooking responsibilities can be shared among. The final building will be a strip of workshops, including a leather working workshop, a carpentry for the furniture needs of the center, a bakery (to sell bread in the neighborhood as well as provide for the center). Some parents will be employed in the workshops in order to earn their livelihood as well as to provide job training and important mentorship opportunities for the children and youth of the center. Children will not be placed in an adoption cycle or be removed to external agencies, in order to avoid disruption of growth, as well as to avoid possible criticism since the project has international support.