Thursday 2-28-13 Our last work day

This morning began at a brisk pace. Everyone scurrying around camp looking for loose ends to tie up and odds and ends to repair before we depart tomorrow.  There were electricians in the wood shop, in the generator shed, on the volleyball court, over in the activity center and even up on the hill. Linemen could be seen up and down just about every other pole in the camp. Adjusting lights, securing connections, and even trimming an old pole down to size! The ladies were on clean up detail in the freshly rehabbed boys dorm. All the paint cans and drop clothes put away and some last minute clean up with the dust pan and brush. The crew from Steppin Out will remain here for another week, so they have moved on to be ginning the rewiring of the building that contains the directors office and the computer room.
The project has been a Huge success! This camp has physically changed in appearance before our eyes. The results of this project will be felt throughout Bolivia for years to come. The programs here make such a difference in the youth who attend, that teachers in the city schools actually list the students activities and grades as Before Monte Blanco and After Monte Blanco because the improvement is that dramatic. This camp is helping the youth of the country put their best foot forward for a better future for all in this region of South America and its outreach across the world.

Lunch is served

Matt getting ready to fire up the volley ball court lighting

Morning coffee

Topping an old pole

Matt A: "I think I found the problem"...Matt W: "I hope the wire I stuck in this outlet isn't a problem" 

Steppin Out starts a new project

The Ladies Team Celebrates their success

Enjoying the Million Dollar view!

Bill continues to organize the supply shop

Ken and Don trace wires in the activity building

Main panel and automatic transfer switch, Complete!

A beautiful owl asleep in the palm tree

We can't thank you enough for following us along on this journey and praying for us every day. We completed the tasks set before us and did it safely. The journey is not yet over and your continued prayers will continue to be appreciated. Early tomorrow morning we will be leaving here and taking the 5 hour bus ride on less than desirable mountain roads, back to Santa Cruz. Don and Christine along with Art, will be staying here with the Steppin Out crew to continue working on other areas of the campus. I will try to make a blog post tomorrow evening if I am able, however Joel will continue to post updates on the continuing project for another week. I will post a trip wrap up once our 1st team makes it home safely. Thanks Again!

Wednesday 2-27-13

This morning everyone got started at a hurried pace knowing it is our second to last day of work. The electricians set out to wrap up the installation of the new breakers and circuits in the staff members houses. A new power feed was installed in the pumping station on the hill and the control circuitry rewired. This pumping station is responsible for getting water to the kitchen and laundry, thus a very important project for Matt W. and Don. Down in the generator building, Matt A. was in top gear as he made a few more critical connections in the main service panel and also ran a test of the automatic transfer switch....Success! The generator fired right up! A few tweaks tomorrow to be certain everything is perfect under full load and that segment of the project will be complete.
The linemen were busy this morning mounting and wiring "street lights" on a few of the pole to illuminate the dirt roads running through camp. They then moved on to cleaning up and stripping off more unneeded hardware from a few other poles and the main distribution tower. Later in the day the linemen ran a new duplex line down to the farm.
Down on the volley ball court, Steve & Steve picked up where Matt and I left off, and ran the wiring up the poles for the new LED lighting.
The ladies continued in the boys dorm, cleaning the floors and hanging the new curtains. Some of the curtains were still being made today as they were going up. Walking through the dorm tody was like walking through a new building! Christine, Steph and Ilodia are in the process of making table runners for 40 table in the dining hall.....adding a bit of a tropical flair.
And we can't forget about Steppin Out Missions....according to Joel, the kitchen rewire is complete! At 5pm the new service panel was buttoned up as Choka and her girls prepared our dinner. A few bumps on the head and a whole lot of sweat, but the dining hall is a success and shining bright....Congrats to the Steppin Out Crew!

Street lights go up

Danna, daughter of Brenda from the staff

Art wires a new panel

A newly rehabbed dorm room

Lunch being prepared

Lunch today

Lunch before it was cooked!

Another room complete

Illodia and Christine display their table runner

Tom is in command

Potato crop down on the farm

Steve & Steve run wire up the pole

The duplex line makes it to the farm

Joel from Steppin Out buttons up the kitchen panel 

Mama Choka and her girls prepare dinner

It is amazing to see how many items were checked off the "To do" list today and how much has been accomplished. As we make this final push to complete the project, we are all working in overdrive. The Lord has blessed us with another beautiful day and a bit cooler weather, in the 70's, so we can make this final push more comfortably. We are all looking forward to the big wrap up tomorrow. Please Pray for our team to complete every thing we can here to do and do it safely! Also, please check back tomorrow evening to see the finished results!

Another cloudy morning

Yesterday was an amazing day, weather-wise. We could see rain to our south and then we could see rain to our north. We fully expected to get drenched during our outdoor work time, but the only rain we felt was a very slight mist and it did not last long. I consider this to be the perfect protection from the Lord for the work we still need to get done here. This morning is completely cloudy and who knows whether we will be able to work outside all day or not, but we are committed to finishing the task at hand.

As Shane has been posting on this blog recently, we are looking at the I-TEC exodus from Monte Blanco in two days. What memories and friendships have been made here! It will be hard to leave here. Our fellowship and devotional times have been precious! Our group even sang a song in the local church in San Isidro on Sunday evening and it seemed to be very well accepted. The song we have focused on while here is called JESUS, ALL FOR JESUS, and it has taken on some real meaning for most or all of us. It is why we are here and we just hope that the meaning of the words of that song resonate through our hearts for years to come.

I have asked Joel Corley from Steppin Out Missions to continue the blog beyond I-TEC's presence here, as we have worked so well and hard together in this endeavor. Joel is also pastor of a church in Ohio where the mission is headquartered. We have developed some eternal friendships with the team from SOM and are confident we will be teamed up again sometime in the future if the Lord tarries. SOM has focused on redoing the electrical wiring in the Kitchen.Dining building. They have installed new lighting in the dining area and throughout the building and it has taken on a whole new look. We are confident the campers coming here in two weeks will be delighted with the changes!

I am just posting this to let you know that there could be possibly multiple posts on some days in the next few days as I-TEC leaves Monte Blanco and heads to Santa Cruz for the trip back to the States. SOM will be here for one additional week and will be working on the punch list we leave behind. Beyond that, Art Soares and Don and Christine Ames will be staying until March 15 and then will return to the States with Tim and Ceci Ramsey. Don and Christine and Art are part of the I-TEC team, so when the bulk of our team leaves on Friday, we are actually leaving three of our own here to the middle of March, just before camping resumes. The next window of opportunity for major work here at Monte Blanco will be in the middle of winter, in July. It is not known right now if any I-TEC or SOM volunteers will be part of that or not, but we are hopeful that someday some of us can return here to see how the Lord has been blessing this great ministry! We are thankful to the hundreds of you who have been faithfully following this blog, and we are hopeful that you might consider coming along with us sometime!

Tuesday 2-26-13

I don't want to sound like a broken record with repetition.....but, Most of the work today was a continuation of yesterday, with a few exceptions.
The guys from Steppin Out Missions made major progress in the kitchen today. New electrical feeds were run to the new 220 volt compressors and evaporators for the walk in coolers. The basement of the kitchen is currently a dark, musty void but soon it will be an illuminated new storage space.
Do to the diligence of our electricians, one of the original 2 buildings in the central court that became know as the "house of horrors" because of its disastrous wiring and cramped attic, has been rewired and a new service panel installed. Great job John Albright, Matt Aungst, Ken and Art!!! The rest of the electricians spent most of the day either on the hill side cabins or hopping around camp fixing odds and ends like the irrigation pump down by the river. A new pole mounted breaker panel was installed to supply electricity to the farm and the water pumping station.The linemen joined in with the electricians on a few of these tasks and vice versa....a true team effort to get this project through to completion. Up in the boys dorm, a few accents were added....a bold strip down the hall and a few windows have new curtains. We can't wait to see the end result ladies!

Harry Truman the campus mascot

 Rain falls in the distance

1st day of harvest at the farm

Gary and Tim discuss the plan, nice machete Tim!

An accent strip for the dorm

Steppin Out brings power to the cooler

Fresh from the farm

A group effort at the "house of horrors", see Ken in the attic!

The kitchen basement

New service panel for the farm

Steve get some river water to prime the pump

Bringing new power to a little house 

More than just a blogger....

The bon fire scheduled for last night was postponed due to heavy cloud cover and chance of rain. It didn't rain last night but we did have a few passing sprinkles throughout the day today. This gave us a comfortably cool work day today, that was much appreciated. A Blessing to the team as the push is on to get things finished up in just 2 more days!

Monday 2-25-13

Today started off as most Mondays do on a job site as a project continues into a second week......with a meeting! The I-Tec guys gathered after breakfast to discuss where we left off on Saturday, what areas were critical to complete today and a plan of attack for the next 4 days. After some discussion it was determined the electricians would head to the cabins on the hill. First assignment, clean up some wiring in the attics and test all the outlets and switches to ensure they are working properly. As the day progressed, the focus moved to the buildings around the central courtyard. Once in the attics a pile of new electrical messes were discovered and strategies to fix them devised. Steppin out Missions was again hard at work in the dining hall, buttoning up the wiring of the new lighting in the kitchen area, and replacing the temporary circuits with new permanent ones. The new kitchen main panel was also fitted with a series of new primary circuits to power the kitchen equipment and the new 220 volt outlets through out the building.
Thanks to some extra weekend work by John Corley of Steppin Out Missions, the washing machine up and running today. Part of our ladies team, working with the Bolivian ladies, tackled the monster pile of laundry today while the other continued the painting at the boys dorm.
The linemen were busy stringing phone and internet service across the campus to the house of the camp director Vico, and attaching it to the new concrete poles. They also attached new duplex feeds to Tim Ramsey's house supplying permanent grid power from the local utility.
All of this plus a few odds and ends....Matt Wilson and I pulled wire through the conduits for the lighting to be installed at the volley ball court.....made for a very productive Monday. We still have much to do and have a plan to get it done.

Testing the breakers at Tim's cabin

A new attic for Matt to explore

Laundry duty...check out that washing machine!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUNTER!!!!

John Albright makes a new panel box

Another Bolivian ladder put to good use

New messes discovered in the attic!!!

Our night watchman, Chocolate', rests in the shade

Do not attempt at home, this is only a test!

If you didn't know, tonight is a full moon, and we are being treated to bon fire up at the air strip during our devotional time tonight. So around 7PM tonight, you can look up at the moon and know we are enjoying the same view!