The dental team are pulling in excess of 100 teeth per day!

Merit Award 2012

We have finally been blessed with a few hot dry days which has enabled us to crack on, although the work the team have been doing up until now has already been great! The painting team at Bluefields hospital have been working in oppressive conditions but have done a brilliant job in the orthopaedic treatment room.

The Dental team is now working at the eastern end of the Rio Grande de Matagalpa. Together with a Bluefields dentist, they are pulling in excess of 100 painful, rotten teeth, per day.

One of the team, Jennifer, a retired lady from Bristol, saves up all year in order to buy school uniforms for children who are not allowed to go to school without. So far she has gone shopping with 42 children and she even gets discount at one of the shops she goes to.

Following the teams recent visit to the tip they have been able to repair many shacks to be at least habitable which to us, they would be not much more than garden sheds.

On site, the great progress has inspired not only the community, but also the Alcaldia (Council), who want to work with the Peace and Hope charity team to improve conditions for the people & inspire many other communities. They are due to visit us on Thursday afternoon (24th).

The middle ring beam and columns have been cast and the shuttering was constructed. Two and a half cubic metres of concrete was mixed by hand, delivered by wheelbarrow & shovelled into the shuttering. It was tamped, rodded and compacted to get all of the air out. The locals are helping with every process – apparently they were disappointed that there was no delivery of sand yesterday! The shuttering is to be removed and moved up to the next level.

John has got the drainage pipe in place. A 4″ pipe comes through into the laundry facility and a 90 degree elbow and extension brings it up to floor level. The fall of the floor has been planned and pegged out and the base for the water tank has been dug out and concrete cast. It will have a 2500 litre tank on it so any construction needs to be solid and strong. The base was completed today.

When I returned back from site i had to attend to requests for aid from six ladies and thirteen children. The team don’t get to sit down a lot!

I’m sure we are on schedule, but I am too tired to think! We have a week to go to push on!

See a full collection of images from the Loma Fresca project here