On October 19th, four thirty-dayers were banished from the Hogar and sent to Linares, taking with them two from Team 2. Mark Kromeke (leader), Lee Owens, Diana Corey, Nancy Corales (translator), Debby Howen and Bob Howen traveled to the Alliance School to help renovate one of the dormitories. After arrival, Ruth and Rafael Fuentes showed us around the facilities. This is the former boys orphanage where Vision for Chile built a school years ago. The boys home is now used for girls that live too far from the school to commute daily. Ruth hopes to eventually house fifty girls. The school is still looking great but the second dormitory is in desperate need of repair and is unusable. The first project was to completely tear the ceiling out of two dorm rooms creating a big mess. Lee managed to break both ends of his cat’s paw with-in minutes on the same nail! Another ceiling was prepared for drywall and supplies were purchased. Before we are finished we hope to replace those two ceilings and repair the joints on all the others. Then comes painting and…? The operative words are, as always, be flexible! The tasks keep changing!
We are all doing well. A little cold but plenty of blankets. The water heater should be fixed tomorrow. We have had great meals. The accommodations are a bit different than at the Hogar. With the smaller team and the inoperative dorm, we are staying together in the future home of the school director.
