October 2008:
Update 29 October 2008
At last, the main building has a roof!
This is a good step in the right direction. Sayda visited Tahua a few weeks ago with our electrician, to make a list of materials for the electrical connections. Now we can start working on that.
At the same time, political struggles have arisen between local leaders in the municipality. As you know the municipality agreed to cover the workers' wages, but with the local political problems it was difficult to implement contracts we had all signed before. As a consequence we recently had less people working on the construction of the boarding school than was previously decided. The mayor did not even want to pay the workers anymore…
So, we have decided to hire our own crew to finish the job.
We have found a good team of new workers to finish off and painting the inside of the building. So now they are scheduled to start working very soon.
Please send your opinion to:
info@tahua-bolivia.com with CC to info@boliviaspecialist.com
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July 2008:
Update 30 july 2008
The roof construction is going fast now, the students are working!
Update 29 july 2008
 Architect giving instructions
Update 17 july 2008
Until this date Boarding School Tahua has received 20.804,64 U$ (13.260,63 Euros)
in donations for which we and Tahua are very thankful for.
We are still needing another 35.000 U$ (22,000 Euros) before the pupils can move into the boarding school.
Come on, we can do it!
There has been progress as you have been able to read in the updates below.
We hope that it is all up from here onwards.
Tahua can only manage with your help!
Please spread the word and together make sure that the boarding school opens its doors as soon as possible.
The finishing date depends also on you.
Update 15 july 2008
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In the meantime, we have been re-calculating the budget adjusting prices to the high inflation (see update below). We will give an update in a couple of days. The architect is now in Tahua with Sayda to make sure that the construction of the roof is on schedule. They are also checking stock of materials on the building site.
They also have a meeting with the authorities of the village to make new contracts and make sure that they have paid the workers who are working on the building site.
Yes, you have to check and double check everything in Bolivia! |
Update 1 july 2008
 click image to enlarge |
We just returned from a visit to the village of Tahua where we checked on the progress of the project.
The roof
They are now working on the roof in the workplace! The constructors are making the triangles now to support the roof. The workers were sawing and drilling everything by hand which was taking them too long. Therefore we bought them an electrical drill and saw, which will be easier and at the same time it speeds up the process.
At last, our electricity
On 24 June we were privileged to be able to see how the building site was connected to permanent electricity. Now the workers can have constant light without using the expensive generator which ran on diesel. Tahua does have some power cuts but that is the Bolivian way of life!
The story of the wood
We have had two set backs the last two months. The first one was that the suppliers delivered the wood for the roof two months too late but to add to the problem with them it was other wood than we had agreed upon. Bad news. It was not strong enough for a sustainable building. Our architect said that we should not take any risks by using this softer wood. We traveled immediately to the place we bought the wood, which is 500km from Tahua, to complain and demand the quality we paid for. The supplier refused, giving ridiculous excuses.
In Bolivia the customer is not always right, the supplier is. We could go to court but this will take up so much time, energy and money, all which we would prefer to use more for the boarding school in Tahua. We have decided to sell the first lot of wood so that there are fewer financial repercussions for the project.
After rain there is sun. We have found another supplier which has been able to deliver high quality wood to Tahua and on time! On the photos you can see them bringing in the right wood.
Inflation
The other set back has been the huge inflation which is holding Bolivia in its grip. Some of the materials have doubled in price compared to last year.
For that reason the architect is recalculating prices for the materials which we have to buy after the roof is finished.
Based on these calculations we will adjust the budget together with the foundation's financial supervisor in Holland. |
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Next stages
During our meeting last week with the mayor of Tahua,
he promised us that his workers will finish the construction by January 2009.
The local council is paying for the workers' salaries. We hope this is possible.
On the building site:
After the roof, the next stage is the doors and windows, electrical and plumbing system and then the plastering.
The last stage will be toilets, showers and floors. |
We 'll keep you posted!
Many 'saludos' from Bolivia,
Dirko and Sayda
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