Mural and improvements

One of the attractions of the location of our 'Estrella de Sauce' headquarters building is that it backs onto a sports ground.  But up until recently we had not taken advantage of this feature.  Over the last few weeks with the help of our volunteers, the children who attend our classes and workshops and a local mason we have added a concrete patio/sidewalk to give access to the sports area, opened up and renovated the back gate which was previously nailed shut and painted a whimsical mural of 'la laguna' with its boats and denizens.

Our volunteer Axel from the Black Forest in Germany with children after a day spent painting our new mural

Special children

In April Lourdes was asked to oversee a new program in Sauce for children with 'habilidades diferentes' - Spanish for different abilities.  The municipal authorities were paying for an organizer for the program but this organizer really had no idea how to set up the program and asked Lourdes for help.  Subsequently a building was found and twelve children with 'handicaps' such as down syndrome, cerebral palsy and deaf/mute started attending morning educational and therapeutic classes three days a week.
This is a big step for a rather remote rural community where special needs children have mostly been neglected in the past and is a sign that Sauce is generally moving forward in some positive directions.
What is interesting is that as soon as Lourdes took on the extra load of running this progam with the help of our wonderful volunteers she recieved news that our Shipibo friends in Pucallpa have decided to close our Waldorf-inspired educational project that we set up in 2007.  This was because the principal teachers in the program have been invited to Canada for an extensive period.  It was painful for us to bring this project to a close but at the same time it frees Lourdes up to be able to concentrate on this new endeavor in Sauce.  Doors close, new doors open....

Oscar is a lovely boy but pretty wild.  He's now learning some social skills in our special needs program.

Lourdes doing therapeutic work with Sindi who is paralized on her right side

Cris has cerebral paralysis but made this necklace with Lourdes.

Work goes forward in Sauce

In our 2 hectare horticulture project called 'Fundo Skydance' we now finally have running water after various hassles with the municipal authorities.  Here's the official Sauce backhoe digging the trench while Bondo supervises...

 

 

 

 Here is a photo of Dan and Donna Facor's wooden lakeside house which nears completion.  In front is the experimental sailing catamaran 'Estrella del Lago' undergoing a refit which called for raising the vessel up on blocks to allow for some hull repairs with fiberglass and epoxy.  We are also repainting the hulls in tropical bright colors and replacing some balsawood deck boards.  What a faff (British for lots of work), but gotta do the maintenance and upgrades or the boat becomes unsafe.  So it goes.....

Shivver me timbers mateys, there's that rascal Bondo again up on the forward deck!!

Slightly Steinerian door by me into almost completed ground-floor bedroom.  Bondo again!

New shower with glass blocks.

 

 

Blackie in my woodshop

 

Green polycarbonate roofing over second-storey walkways.

 

Greetings to all

A belated Happy New Year for 2014 to all our dear family and friends.  Please know that all are invited to come to Sauce for a visit.  We even have a new bedroom for visitors recently completed in our Estrella de Sauce headquarters.  We always enjoy having people to stay and usually go for a cruise around Laguna Sauce in our sailing catamarán 'Estrella del Lago'.

New guest bedroom at 'la escuelita'

New sign

Traditional oven now has a cement coating

Garden at 'la escuelita'

Daily English classes on Sauce community radio

We are now on our eleventh weekly English class here in Sauce.  We record an hour every Monday night  at 6pm and the class gets repeated every weekday at the same time.  We try to combine material for all ages and intersperse learning words and phrases with songs and verses aimed at younger listeners.

Catamaran sleepover

While our 10 meter sailing catamarán is built as a daysailer with no cabin, it has plenty of room on the main deck to put up a dome tent.  Yesterday I got fed up with fixing dry rot on a stern transom and decided to go camping down at the end of ´la laguna´where there is some remaining classic jungle and wildlife.  It was the first time I had slept out on the boat and it was a delight to put down the anchor in a secluded cove and go kayaking at twilight to see a whole variety of birds.

I had a good night´s sleep but dawn rose with ominous rolls of thunder in the distance so I headed back to Sauce quickly and got in just before a huge tropical downpour.  I was really glad it waited til I had gotten back.

House construction

Our house in Sauce, which will have a cafe downstairs and two bedrooms for guests upstairs as well as a bedroom for Lourdes and I, plus a woodshop, is moving forward slowly but surely.

I'm really glad to have finally got the main roofing completed which includes a third-storey 'mirador' or lookout with a nice 360 degree view of the town of Sauce and out over 'la laguna'.  This mirador features a palm frond roof and will no doubt be a favorite hang-out spot when the construction moves along enough to include permanent stairs up to it.