Hooking to the Grid: the Camp Gets Connected

LATCOM is hosting an electrical team at Monte Blanco. Here is part of a report sent from Monte Blanco from LATCOM missionary Ceci Ramsey:

I have been amazed at the amount of work this team hopes to accomplish… I did not realize the extent of it as I thought it was just a matter of putting in a few lines and connecting to the electrical grid.  Not so!  They have to consider the future plans of camp (how many campers/placement of pool/which lighting for which area) then put in poles, lines, new connections, etc.  Many of the walls in the buildings will have to be cut as new lines are installed... which means repair, painting, etc. The entire dining room and kitchen is to be redone, including the ceiling and light fixtures as well as most of the roof replaced. This is not to mention the sheer logistics of hosting such a large team.

Above: The quad of Monte Blanco. The electrical team
is working on connecting the camp to the Bolivian
electrical grid.

I am really grateful for the expertise already seen with the advance team.  One of the couples was able to re-time the industrial sewing machine yesterday and I am going down in a bit to check it out.  This seems like such a mundane thing… but it is exciting for me as I spend a lot of my "free" time sewing and the machine is too large to take into the city to be checked.  I had already spent hours taking things apart, trying out different needles and bobbin positions, etc. and I can tell you... I really appreciate the handiness of some people!

I am excited about a nursery expert coming down this trip as I have been trying out different plants here.  I have some wonderful blackberries going (I brought them bare-root from the U.S. a couple years ago) and I transplanted some last year to see how they go and they are growing well. The soil is very alkaline so is great for blackberries. I hope to have the men digging ditches for the electric lines also dig up an area to transplant more bushes. Plus it is exciting for me to have others interested in gardening as I am usually the only one running around camp with pruners, etc. besides the gardener who is extremely overworked.

Yesterday I caught 2 of the 3 horses and tied them out in some long grass, brushed them, cleaned their hooves, sprayed them with fly spray, etc.  I made a batch of oats with apples, carrots, and molasses.... and they carefully ate everything BUT the fruit.  LOL.  Then I worked with a third skittish horse with which we have worked for 3 years...we have him gingerly accepting bean pods from our hands but if you try to touch him, he freaks out.  I am beginning to suspect that I may need to rope him, then touch him, brush him, etc. to help him get past his overwhelming fear of humans.

Last night a breaker burned out (overloaded) during church services and the electricians were asked to replace it. They were able to do so, hot wiring it.  This won't be a problem in two weeks when we are officially hooked into the grid.

Tim and one of the guys are heading for Santa Cruz tomorrow to get things ready for the rest of the team arriving. They have to locate 2 bunk beds, most of the shopping list for the wiring and paint work, food, water, t.p. and other sundries, etc. Please pray for them that they can locate what is needed... and that it won't be too overwhelmingly expensive. Pray for transportation, too, for safety and being able to get the bus needed to get everyone here. Carnival should be ending tomorrow as they travel so there will be lots of drunks on the road... so pray for safety especially for the 5-hour trip in to town. Between the drunks, the loose animals, the winding pock-mocked road, and the cliffs... it can be quite a "ride."

Thanks for your prayers.

The Monte Blanco Electrical Team is a partnership of LATCOM, Steppin-Out Missions, and I-Tec. The Advance Team arrived on February 5 and work will continue through the first week of March. Last year, the camp was hooked-up to the Bolivian electrical grid, which uses a 220 volt system. We are now in the process of converting the camp's electrical system from 110 volt to 220.