Mustard Seed's newest project -- to repair up to 75 roofs for rain collection cisterns that are already in place at each house, to provide water for the whole community in the area.
Negotiating long distance, across two cultures and in two languages, can be pretty tricky. However, as of last week we had reached agreement on the cost to repair five roofs and their corresponding cisterns. These first five are some of the easiest to repair. Three of them have intact cisterns; two have simple cracks that need repairing. Our goal in fixing the easiest to repair was to establish houses where water could immediately be collected to begin serving the community. The cost for the first five houses was a little under $1,000 each.
This afternoon we had our meeting with COTMA to lay the groundwork for Rain on the Roof. It was a very good meeting with 6 members of COTMA, the community organization from Platon. We talked over our mutual desires and expectations about starting the roofing project. Then Paul described the data matrix he'd made that described the conditions of the roofs, the walls of the houses, the size of the cisterns, the number of neighbors who would benefit, etc. I was very glad to see two older people there including a woman my age, Madame Elisna.
This rich video provides an overview of the needs assessment that we just completed in January 2011. As you'll see there are many homes with poor roofs. Each roof we're able to repair will collect rainwater into an existing cistern, thereby providing over 5500 gallons of water to the surrounding community.
The past two days were very successful! It's been reassuring to know that what we planned, based on everything we'd been reading online and in the kolera advisories.
Up at dawn after sleeping well in the school building at Platon.
The trail downhill is very busy with people walking to market with heavy loads on their head and they aren't wearing "trail runner shoes", believe me! We also see flocks of sheep and a large oxen being led down every once in a while.
Coffee and granola bars for breakfast then Paul gathered his materials for the Rain on the Roof project. They were supposed to leave at 7:30 but will prob actually closer to 8:30.
