Tuesday, 26 June 2012

• Things have been pretty quiet at Dulce Refugio over the past month. Eveyone is getting ready for the summer holidays that they have been so eagerly waiting for the past months. I have some pictures of the progress of the construction to share with you. Duane has decided to make our own windows for the boys' dorm. This will save about 50% on the costs of the windows, which is alot since we need over 50 windows in the boys' dorm to be made. It is very labour intensive work but in about two days we can make 8 windows. The funds for these windows were provided for by the New Zealand embassy, so we are very grateful to them for this support. Here is the progress so far, with a few more details to be finished soon.

   

  Over the past three weeks we have also been busy with making 56 concrete beams for the installation of the third storey roof for the boys' dorm. This is once again another big cost saving measure, where we save about 50% on the costs of these beams by making them ourselves. We have a mold that can make 10 beams at a time. We cut the steel to the length that we need and make the concrete to fill up the molds. So it is very easy to do but it is a very crutial part of the building process. The team that will arrive in the beginning of July will be installing all these beams.

   

  Some of our hired hands putting up some forms so we can pour the concrete beam on top of the walls. We have about 3/4 of the building finished with this process.

  

  This is our trusty old hoist. It has been faithful to us for about 4 years. It is on its last legs, so when Duane was in Canada this month he brought back a new one, which we ordered over Ebay. It saves us a lot of work with hauling materials up to the third floor!!  

   

  We have pretty much finished the last details in two of the dorm rooms on the first floor as part of the New Zealand project. We are just putting the final touches to the rooms. We hope to have teams stay in the boys' dorm by the end of August, when the roof is finished and we can install the water tanks. Here we are just finishing grouting the tile floor.

   

  I just had to take this picture. For those who know Erin, it isn't a surprise to see her with a number of kids around her as she does her work around the orphanage. She has a special gift with the little ones.

    

  That is all for now.

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