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We CAN make a Difference!
In March 2004, ten Eagle Condor Board Members traveled to Chiclayo Peru on an exploratory expedition to evaluate future projects. The July Expedition followed up on our project findings and in this article, you will find the "before" and "after" reports of the projects that were done in Monsefu, a suburb south of Chiclayo. Sandy Daniels, a member of the Board of Directors on the March Exploratory Expedition made the March report and Susan Stanley a Board member and Co-Expedition Leader for the July Expedition made the Follow Up July 2004 reports. The following will illustrate how important expeditions are and how they benefit those who need help.
March 2004 - DANIEL FLONTOP FERNANDEZ
Daniel lives with his mother and four daughters. His wife left them a year ago after skillfully teaching her daughters how to steal. Daniel is a farmer from the mountain town of Cajamarca who came to Chiclayo to work in the rice fields. Because the rice industry is failing in the north, now he works in the fishing industry buying and selling fish to support his family. His mother who is 74, weaves straw hats to sell. Each hat takes 2 weeks to make and is sold for 20 soles, the equivalent of $6.50. She has bad eyesight and weaves without glasses. Daniel has been trying to repair his roof since the El Niņo floods of 2002 purchasing materials a little at a time. The roof is made of bamboo and mud and because there is a change of weather in the north of Peru and there is more rain, it has destroyed the roof. He qualified for a government program to purchase materials for one room and pay monthly. After 2 years he has paid off the materials and is ready to roof the room. The July expedition will help him to finish that room and two other rooms so that his family can move back into the front of the house.
Follow up: July 20, 2004
Daniel is a single father of four daughters. His 72 year old mother assists him in raising the children She also lives in the home with Daniel and the girls. Ed Braithwaite, a contractor from St. George, was able to build a bathroom and replace the old leaky roof. The bathroom was placed in the front of the home, making it easy to hook into the city sewer system. The roof however was a huge problem and took several days to complete. The back wall had to be built up three feet and the middle and front walls had to be lowered to create a slope for the roof. When the expedition left, the bricklayer was still working on the walls for the bathroom. A civil engineering student (Gustavo) was working with the Eagle Condor expeditioners and will be overseeing the setting of the toilet once the cememt is dry.
March 2004 - Consuelo Rodriguez
Sister Rodriguez is a widow with a handicapped son. She has no bathroom but cannot afford the water for one. Her main need is a bathroom.
Follow up: July 2004
Consuelo is a widow and liveswith her handicapped son. Consuelo is not sure she can afford the water for a bathroom and aksed that we not build it. After considering her request, we felt that we should install the bathroom. This was done so that the family could benefit from having it once the money is available for the water. We placed the bathroom in the back of the home. It was a very long distance to the city sewer systerm. There were many challenges in getting everything in place for the bathroom. There are five rooms in the home; each one is deeded to a differenct family member. The rooms ran back to back along one wall in the home, a narrow and long hallway ran along the opposite wall. Because of the rooms being owned by different people, the only option we had for connecting into the city sewer was to dig the trench down the narrow hallway. The dirt had to be shoveled into buckets for removal, making it a long and tiresome process. We left the bathroom with the pipe in place, the footings poured, the walls still needing to be constructed and Gustavo will set the toilet when the cement is dry. As a side note, the son is a very talented artist. Several of us bought pencil sketches of Christ from him.
March 2004 BERTA SANCHEZ EFFIO
Sister Effio has 13 people living in her home. She has a large front room with beds, a table and chairs, a kitchen with running water, a bedroom with two beds and a shower. For a bathroom, she has a squat hole in the back of her yard. Her daughter in law, son, their 4 children, a mother in law and her own children. she is a widow. She has a large area with good sunlight in her back yard an with instruction could have a nice garden.
Follow Up - July 2004
Berta lives with her 17 year old daughter, 15 year old son and her two grandchildren. She is a widow. We installed a bathroom in the back of the home. The walls were in the biginning stages when we left and Gustavo will set the toilet when the cement is ready. Berta washes clothing for a living, so we also poured a cement pad and placed a sink in the back yard to help make her work easier. The laundry business doesn't create a lot of income for their family. Oswaldo is planning on working with Berta to create a small business to produce more income in hopes that they can become self-sufficient. Her daughters are very hard workers and helped up dig the trenches for the drainage pipes. The four-year-old grandson is quite a little dancer and performed traditional dances for us along with several other children from the nearby school.
March 2004 CESAR CACHAY BARRANTES
Brother Barrantes is the Elders Quorum President. He is married with 4 children. He was a construction worker but suffered a work related accident and has been out of work. He had a medial debt and has been charged 20% monthly on a $300.00 loan. He has repaid $800.00 in interest alone. Eagle Condor gave his Stake President, President Cordova $200.00 to pay his debt off and the Foundation will hire him to do piece mill work for repayment.
Follow up: July 2004
Cesar Barrantes lives with his wife and four children. He is a builder and was very helpful on all the job sites. Everyday, he would be at several of the projects assisting with the trenches and installation of the bathrooms. We built a bathroom in the back of his home and replaced the leaky old roof. The trenches were already dug and the old roof removed when we arrivfed. This made our job easier and everything was nearly completed within a day. The walls for the bathroom were nearly done when we left and Gustavo is planning to help Cesar set the toilet when the cement is dry.
March 2004 MEETING WITH THE MAYOR OF MONSEFU
Meeting was in the Mayor's Office with Sandy Daniels, Kelly Sheppard and Bill Hall
...The mayor was delighted with our visit indicating that there has been very little assistance with any hunamitarian groups in their area.
Follow up - July 2004
Oswaldo had arranged for our group to do a community service project in Monsefu. He arranged with the city to have us paint the cubs of the plaza in the area where people first enter the city. We also had the opportunity to paint a section of a Monsefu public school. We replaced old burned out lights and later returned to teach hygiene classes to the children. We were able to give each child a hygiene kit , thanks to an Eagle Scout Project by Aaron Montague that was sent down with us. We gave out about 160 kits.
A library set of over 100 books was donated to the Monsefu Public Library. The Mayor of Monsefu had a formal ceremony when we dropped off the books including the media, small band, and the local priest!
At the end of the expedition, the May of Monsefu invited us to join her in the main plaza for a thank you ceremony. She was joined by the Military in dress uniform. The city gave the foundation a parchment to thank us all for the hard work that we accomplished in their city. We gave the Mayor a wooden plaque with the Eagle Condor name and logo.
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