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Wednesday
was Santa Teresa - a 2 1/2 hour drive away. A whole
new roof system created a whole new set of problems,
and translation difficulties caused delay, but we
persevered and finished by, 6 PM, an hour before
dark. Allen was able to do a lot of training of
Chappie, the government supplied technician. Allen
also left him with a complete set of tools (he did
not even have a volt meter). Dr. Jamie (pronounced
Hymie) was a very important part of the "solar team"
as he did the translations and got up on the roof
with Peter at Santa Teresa, despite a beehive.
Thursday
was a repair job at Jiquinlaca (pronounced
He-key-lock-a), which was pretty simple. The main
reason the system did not work was lack of education
of the resident nurse at the clinic. The system was
installed during construction of the building and
the nurse showed up months later with no
introduction to the system. She turned off the
batteries, not allowing the panels to charge the
system, thinking she was turning off the fridge. The
Trace C-30 charge controller has a mechanical relay,
a bad choice of equipment for this climate, which
was sticking, but the main problem was lack of
training. The day proved good education for Chappie.
Friday
was Santa Domingo, and another repair job. Chris
Molnar came along subbing for Peter. The "problem"
was poor wiring job on the panel installation and at
the controller. Chris relayed information from the
roof keeping Allen on the ground, but Chappie did
most of the investigation work and discovered the
wiring problem on the panels. More investigation was
needed to discover the other problem but it too was
solved. At this point Allen is worried about the
possibility of running out of the proper hardware to
finish the two church systems as he used quite a bit
of his stuff on both the installations due to poor
design of the mounting racks.
The
actual solar equipment provided by the government
was good quality stuff, just incomplete.
Saturday
Allen and Tim Gehner left Santa Lucia at 5 AM to
travel to Concepcion and to Santiago to install the
first church system. Santiago is a poor community
with no electricity and a small church. The system
was designed to provide lighting 3-4 nights per
week. The church will be a real light in the
darkness. A couple of Peace Corps workers, Deb and
David joined us and proved invaluable, Deb as a
translator and David as the roof man. Allen was very
happy to have good roof support, as the "ladder" was
very rickety. The system went in without any
problems with Tim getting the interior wiring
started and with the help of Naum (Spanish for Naham),
a local teacher who is quite knowledgeable with
electricity.
There is
the possibility of Naum partnering with Allen for
solar home installations in Honduras. The local
people helped a lot and were a little
skeptical...until the lights went on. It is possible
that the church(s) will become so popular as
nighttime centers that a second panel will need to
be installed in the future (a much smaller
investment) to allow 7-day use.
Sunday
was the waterfall day and a great time for all,
except Mark who sprained his ankle on the way down.
Helping Mark back up the hill proved physically
taxing for a few of our guys, but all went well.
Ann, who participated in may of the group
ministries, including a day of construction work at
Magdelana, traveled to Santiago with a contingent of
the group for a Monday Fiesta and thus was able to
see some of Allen's work.
Monday
was La Guaruma and a very beautiful place. The kids
all lined up outside the church in a welcoming
party, touching all. A fiesta was in the plans to go
on at the same time as the installation. Peter was
back as the roof man, which proved very valuable, as
the hardware was getting thin. We had used the
mounting brackets brought down in October, for the
Santiago install and were very limited.
But with
the experienced team (Peter, Naum and Allen) we were
able to put it together. God had all the nuts and
bolts counted beforehand as we used our last nut for
the size bolt we needed. Scott experienced some
dizziness during all the activities but responded to
Dr. Jim's attention and prayer. As Peter and I left
La Guaruma, we were able to look down on the church
from a hillside as the church people finished
putting the roof back together.
The
workers and we waved back and forth and Allen
breathed a sigh of relief, and a prayer of thanks
{not the first one of the trip}. It is highly
evident that God was with us every step of the way
for all of this to be accomplished.
Allen
also views everything as an affirmation of his
vision for ministry. He will be articulating this
vision and casting it within the next few days.
Blessings
and thanks to all for the prayer support.
Allen
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