Estrella de Sauce building campaign

Heartfelt thanks go out to friends and family members in the UK, USA, Australia, Russia and Thailand who felt moved to donate during our Indiegogo 45 day fundraiser which ended Feb 28.

Richard, Greg, Rob, Hugh and Patricia, Peter, Leo, Paul, Boris, Sarah, Yvette, Abby and Daniel, we are really grateful for your support.  And thank you Robin for making the video and providing logistics from the US unavailable in Peru.

Your donations have enabled us to get roof and gutters completed, the bathroom tiled and fixtures installed, cement floor poured, a decorative wall of wooden sticks made (for ventilation) and our traditional dome-shaped bread oven finished.

A word on finances.  We were recently approached by a european NGO with a generous funding offer that would have covered all our expenses.  We decided to turn the offer down because in order to accept the offer we would have had to become an approved institution by complying with various requirements.  We did not feel comfortable surrendering freedom and sovereignty in order to gain funding.  We want to stay small, free, independant and low-budget.  The world of the NGO's seems quite murky to me and I instinctively feel like staying clear of them.

Bottom line:  Thanks to friends and family for helping us steer clear of murky bureaucracy so we can keep things simple as we offer creative educational possibilities here in Sauce and in Ceilan near Pucallpa.

Dividing wall between classroom and crafts area made of sticks allows for ventilation

Slow but steady advances on 'Skydancer' sailing catamaran

'Skydancer' is at present jacked up on wooden blocks while I endeavor to fix some leaks using epoxy and fiberglass.  I have built and installed the swinging centerboard and the twin kick-up rudders are built and ready to be fitted.  I plan to use a length of bamboo as a linkage to join the rudders, I'll turn wooden inserts on my lathe to reinforce the hollow ends of the bamboo.
Our volunteer Inti has been helping me paint the interior as I construct seating with storage for lifejackets and other gear under.  I'm also working on the installation of a solar battery to power two electric bilge pumps, one for each hull.  Bailing by hand gets a bit tedious and it's not called the rainforest for nothing - we get quite a lot of rain here.

Swing keel made of water-resistant wood called ana

Laguna Azul with Sauce in foreground

Next week I plan to start putting down 7/8 x 5 inch deck boards made of topa also known as balsa wood to finish the platform connecting the two hulls and after that will come raising the mast.  Under sail in April?  I hope so.

New soft top for the starboard hull, port to follow shortly

 

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