Boys' village

Probably the best thing to have happen while I was away was the grand opening of the boys' village sanitation bloc.  This new sustainable toilet can accommodate all the children and even the adults like the housemothers.  What a great development as compared to the old big and stinky outhouses we used to have.  The boys are grateful to all who had a hand in getting this project accomplished.

Girls' dome home

Remember that orange ball from the other day?  Well, here it is just a few days later.  This will be a small house for our girls, part of their own little village.

Here's a long shot with the new dome in the center.  The larger dome to the left will house the showers and sanitation bloc.

Once the foundation is done and the bladder is well secured to it, it is quite simple to build a dome.  Inflate the bladder, lay rebar @ 18 inches apart in a grid pattern, put in the conduits for electricity (as is being done in this photo) and follow this up with several layers of cement stucco.  

Girls' dome homes

The girls' dome homes are coming along as you can see.  Notice the orange one in the middle?  That's really a bladder which will support the rebar and cement stucco for the third dome.  We are planning on nine domes: seven for sleeping, one for showers and toilets and one for recreational/study use.

Surprisingly, all our workers, residents and visitors love the domes even though they have a definite igloo thing going.

Pastor Lori

Here's Pastor Lori with Gary Pierre.  Gary showed us his new work station located in the old clinic building.  Gary works in archives and assists the monitors when necessary.  He's still in school so this is a part-time job.

Girls

A few of our little girls gathered to greet me when I visited the children's village yesterday.  I'm back with Pastor Lori Lampert for six weeks doing a mission evaluation.  Once that is done we will able to hone our activities in line with our mission.

Dr. Tozzer Dental Group

We were blessed another year to receive services from Dr. Tozzers Dental Care for Children group. Dr. Tozzer has been coming annually with dentists and hygienists for more than five years. 

The dentists service all of the Espwa children, and then offer clinics for employees and neighbors. They work tirelessly from sun up to sun down in the Espwa preschool, seeing thousands of patients.