Updates.

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

Maria Auxiliadora:

Today we collected the sign for the bottom of the Maria Auxiliadora hill and brought it to the PD house for painting. I’ve also paid Phil Collins to get the t-shirts for the guides. We’ll try to sell the excess t-shirts to tourists and local tour companies. Any “profit” money will go to Maria Auxiliadora or be invested in more t-shirts, as they wish. 

Today some of the Genesis school volunteers came over to help clean up the house. The kitchen is clean and sparkling, and the ceiling-wood has been safely stowed out of the way in the roof. The apartment is looking better than ever, and beginning to look more like a house than a workshop. We plan to make a mural on the wall by the table, and screen off the area where the computer is to store cement, etc out of view. Need to discuss the roof with Cheo. 

Seedlings:

We have a few at Fanca (700 in total of 9 species). They were only planted a few days ago, haven’t checked them for a couple of days but no signs of growth. 

Bosque Park: 

Today I discovered a problem – in the park are a few hives of nasty bees which attack people and seriously harm them. While they are there we can’t really encourage people to go into the park. I’ll ask Marcelo for the Latin name of the species and research it – if it’s not native to Ecuador we can kill them, if it’s common we can move them, if it’s endangered we’re stuck, and if it’s rare we can make it a tourist attraction. The MA residents are considering making the park private (a reserve) so that you can only enter with a guide. No steps or trees have gone in the past week. 

Fanca Produce: 

I have no idea what’s happening. I need to go there with Cheo and work out what’s going on. 

Uni Cath Greenhouse: 

Nearly finished – has roof but not a rainproof one – it’s more of a shadehouse than a greenhouse. Large enough for 3 or 4000 seedlings per month we hope. The beds haven’t been finished. 

Private Landholdings for Revegetation:

No idea. Jeff was working a lot on that, I’ll need to ask him and Marcelo. There’s a lot of burning going on around the university right now. 

Timelines: 

Bosque is on schedule. Uni Cath is on schedule. Fanca I have no clue about. New timelines need to be drawn up as we’re nearly in the last stage of each one.