Pentatonic lyre

I just entered the world of luthiers in a modest way for the first time by making this 7-string lyre that is used for accompanying story telling in the Waldorf schools world-wide.

Help us build our educational center

Thanks to a donation from the Friends of Waldorf Education in Berlin we have been able to resume work on our after-school educational project here in Sauce Peru.
Rafters are going up to support metal roofing with skylights and we are installing this traditional dome-shaped oven so the children can learn bread and pizza making.
We are still short of funds to complete this building project so we have launched a campagn on Indiegogo for $6000 to allow friends and family to participate with ease in making donations large and small.
Please see   http://www.indiegogo.com/lourdesjibaja-facebook  to view a short video about this project and please consider making a credit card donation acceptable in any currency.  Thank you Robin Stevens for making the video!

Jungle catamaran update

This 10 meter (33ft) one-of-a kind sailing catamaran project now is finished as far as the basic structure connecting the two hulls is concerned.  I have also put on roofs with temporary plastic as we are supposedly in the rainy season here in the Amazon basin, although it has not come on too strong yet.  It's mostly been pretty dry lately.  Later I'll find some thicker roof material.

Still to do is put seating/storage lockers in the starboard hull, wrapping the mast (a straight tree trunk)with reinforcing epoxy and fiberglass cloth before stepping it, making and installing centerboard and rudders and finishing installing  the deck.

Photos at right show where I have installed deck boards made of topa (known as balsa wood to model-makers) as an experiment to see if they are strong enough.  They seem plenty firm at 7/8 inch thick and I have ordered more to complete the platform.  It's the lightest wood available as I don't want the boat to sit any lower in the water.  I've also tried out an area of bamboo strips which also seems strong enough and has the advantage of being readily available here, cheap, fast-growing and adds to that jungly look I'm after.

In the cruising photo are Lourdes' daughter Thais and friend Anne who have just left us by bus for a long ride to Brasil after being in Sauce for a month.  They are both carpenters and helped us with various woodworking projects.

Field trip to Lamas

In addition to working with children and youth in the town of Sauce, our UNESCO-affiliated organization Estrella del Sur also hosts a weekly afternoon crafts club for citizens over 60.  Last Friday we took the regular attendees comprising twenty ladies to Lamas, an historic town founded way back in Peruvian history in 1658.  Although only 2 hours away many of the women had never been there and they all really enjoyed the day out.
Highlights included a visit to a museum and crafts gallery where the amiable owner Sra. Nancy encouraged her visitors to dress up in the local native costume.  A stop at Lamas' unlikely Italian castle built recently by a business magnate from Italy, a tour of our friend Lisa's beautiful bio-dynamic horticulture operation, a descent down to el barrio wayku where quechua is still spoken and lunch at el mirador which is an elevated viewpoint where we could look out over the town and the valley beyond.
The day was a great success and encourages us to plan for another outing in the future.

Maiden voyage

Although just 2 hulls connected by wooden beams and without its deck, mast, sails and sunroofs we could not resist laying down a piece of plywood to make a temporary platform, hanging the 4-stroke (less polluting) outboard motor in its well and going for a cruise.
Although this boat is from the Huckleberry Finn school of funky boat design everything seemed to be working fine and holding together as we made our way around la laguna under motor power stopping at one beach for swimming and a game of frisbee and another to eat stuffed platanos.
On the return voyage to our dock the wind kicked up and it was exciting to imagine how this craft will be when we can raise the sails and turn off the motor using only the breeze for power.

A special thanks goes to ex-volunteer Hannes who was with us for a year back in 2007 when we lived near Cusco.  Back then he helped me teach woodcarving to youngsters and made the decision to enter a 3 year cabinet-making program on his return to Germany.  On graduation he crossed the Atlantic on a sailboat and worked for several months as a yacht carpenter in various Caribbean boatyards.  Now he is here in Sauce and has worked with me in our house under construction making this beautiful hand rail

and he has really helped me move the catamaran project forward using his carpentry and yachtsman knowhow.  The outboard motor at first did not want to start having been stored unused for almost 2 years, but finally Hannes gave the rope one last tug and it roared into life

Greetings from Sauce Peru

Lourdes and myself along with volunteers Christina, Corinna and Inti have been hard at work this month creating our new permanent headquarters for Estrella del Sur.  We have put in an enclosed garden, built an access bridge for the front and found funds to pay for local workers to build walls and start the roof.  Thanks again to friends who have contributed to this endeavor.

When finished this Waldorf-based  and UNESCO-recognized community education center will have one large classroom, two small multi-purpose rooms, a bathroom, outdoor covered kitchen and area for woodworking and other crafts.  The idea is for this center to act as a pilot project for bringing the Waldorf approach out into the developing world.  It is not a school, rather an after school enrichment program whereby children and teens can explore creative educational pursuits including arts, crafts as well as academic subjects that they do not receive in their public schooling.  We also host a weekly club for seniors which is very well attended as there is nothing similar in this community.

Now we are looking for funds to finish the project, an estimated $4000 US minimum.  Once we have this money we should be able to get the center up and running in about a month.  It will be great to move out of our present small building and into this much larger facility.  Please contact me at  martinstevens@juno.com  if you would like to donate to this project.

                                          Inti and friends start work on front access ramp

                                                   almost done......(you can't have too many drills!)

                          maestro Simon chops grass to mix with mud for walls of 'kincha'
                          traditional amazonian earthwall-building method

                          helpers apply mixture of mud and grass to prepared bamboo substrate

                              Christina and Corinna about to prepare our new garden for planting

Welcome to our new volunteers

Corinna, Christina and Inti have taken the courageous step of joining us for a year here in Sauce in the peruvian Amazon.  They will be helping us offer classes to children 3 - 16 years old in art, handicrafts, English and help with academic subjects as well as assisting with our construction and gardening projects.
So far they have all shown an affinity for our wonderful laguna, trying their hand at paddling our traditional dugout canoe, doing a lot of swimming and even jumping off a 15 meter high platform into the lake.  That's quite high folks, around 50 feet.