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Helping needy Malagasy kids to become Jesus’ kids! February 2009 Volume 12, Number 2 "A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with
the poor." Proverbs
22:9 |
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Glitches in Madagascar
The life/health of the children and the state of the ongoing
project at Betikara are both well. At least as well as can be expected for
what is happening around us with the present political situation. We are
blessed in many ways even though things are presently in a
mess.
The Betikara school remains open, and all of the Betikara children
are attending classes. We are fortunate that all of the political
stirrings, are so far, contained in the city center. Betikara, as many of
you know, is close to the international airport, but well out of the city,
being placed in the country across a lake from the airport. This lake
provides a natural barrier of safety should anything bad happen at the
airport. Everyone is pressing on with everyday life and everyone seems to
be well emotionally and physically. For this we praise the
Lord.
So far we are blessed that there are still electricity, water, phones, and
Internet. In 2002 all of these services were offline more than online.
There are intermittent times that all of these services are interrupted,
but they are only off for a short period of time before returning. (Having
all of these services operational makes it possible for us to continue
operations without worry, and allows us to stay in contact with Betikara
in case there is some problem that needs to be taken care of quickly.)
Since Betikara does not receive water from the city of Antananarivo, if we
were to loose electricity for a long period of time we would also lose our
supply of water because there would be no electricity to run the pump that
lifts the water from the springs to the water tower. We are also blessed in other ways. First, I always make sure that we have enough money in Madagascar to carry on with the every day needs of the Lambs and the building project. I was able to call our bank in town (where it is unsafe to travel these days) and get them to arrange for me to stop by a different bank that is out in our area. I was able to transfer money and also withdraw money from the Betikara account. Since, we are also blessed with a large business on our end of town that sells hardware and household items I can continue to purchase most of the needed items that we need for our ongoing project. We have found one problem with the finishing of the water tower. The company that was selling fiberglass resin to us has run out of its stock (Nothing new in Madagascar), and will not be getting in a new supply of resin for quite a while due to the political situation.
This has slowed us down a little, but has not stopped the water tower project. While we were still able to purchase resin we were able to finish the inside walls of the reservoir. Since the fiberglass overlaps onto the floor of the reservoir by about one foot all the way around we found that it is enough to seal the leaks between the walls and the floor. We have pumped up about three foot (one meter) of water and are finding that there is only a little bit of leaching through the floor of the reservoir. Once the company calls and can sell us some more resin we will empty the reservoir and finish the fiberglass job on the floor, thus sealing up the last bit of leaching that we are now experiencing.
Since the water tower is semi-operational, we are getting ready to start
setting up the solar hot water system that we have envisioned for some
time now. I am currently checking into the price of the needed circulating
pump, a timer for the turning on and off of the pump, water temperature
switches, pressure valves to regulate the flow of water so that it is not
passing too fast through the system, black tubing that will heat the water
through convection/conduction, the necessary valves for showers and tubs
so that we can install tubing for the hot water system, float valves, and
of course all of the necessary elbows, tees, and other plumbing items that
will be needed for the solar hot water system.
We will also need to buy some foam mattresses or insulation, if
obtainable, which we will use to wrap and insulate the 500 gallon (2,000
liter) tank (pictured in left hand column) that we have in place above the
bathrooms. This is the tank that used to receive the water from the pump
at the springs before the completion of the water tower. We used an
electric float valve to turn on and off the pump at the springs as water
was needed. This electric float valve has moved up to the water tower to
control the level of water from the pump and springs. We will install a
mechanical ball valve (like those found in toilets) to control the level
of water that enters this tank from the water tower. This way, when hot
water is used, the tank will automatically be refilled and heated so hot
water will always be ready to use. Right now we are getting ready to plumb
the tank to work as the storage tank for the solar hot water
system.
We still have a lot of work to accomplish. The amount of work that we can
get done depends greatly on the stability of Madagascar. Please pray for
Betikara, His church, the Malagasy people, and the Rosie family during
this time of political unrest in Madagascar. |
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Indiana Church of Christ “He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him
for what he has done.”
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