Stansberry Projects

Well, they made it. The crew rolled in at 6:20 this evening looking tan and tired. Their final day ending up being a little more than they bargained for however. They knew the 140k final leg would be long but the ever slight downhill grade and paved roads figured to make the ride breeze. A breeze was has, actually it was a strong north wind which was in their face the entire day. Eleven hours after leaving in the morning, they arrived at Stansberry. A big congratulations is in order for the four of them. Lets hear it for the guys!!!

We received a call this morning from Ron's ranch saying that the guys left at 8:30 after staying there the night. Then around 6:00 this evening Chuck called to fill us in on the last few days of the trip. They received a wonder reception from Ron and his workers. They were treated to a pig dinner in the evening and fresh fish for breakfast. Just what is needed to make the last few hundred kilometers. So, they left at 8:30 and biked 146 km to abapo. The first 26km were on a bumpy dirt road and the remaining 120km were on the paved highway. They are now 140km from Stansberry and are expected to arrive tomorrow afternoon some time. From Chuck's commentary, they undercalculated a little on the milage and probably could have used an extra day. On day three there was a climb they did that took an hour an ten minutes and took quite a toll on them as well. Everyone is still in good spirits and I think they are looking forward to completing the trip tomorrow. We will be here waiting for them. Stay tuned for the wrap-up and photo show within the next few days.

With no contact, we have to trust that all is going well. They should have arrived in Caraparecito today. They are in a pretty remote location and when the lights are out the lights are out. I saw one of the most beautiful night skys while we were visiting last year. There is absolutely no light pollution. Only two days to go!!! I don't know where they will be stopping tomorrow but I will try and find out.

We didn't hear from the gang today but we will assume that all went well and that they made it to their destination. This means that they are at the half way point of their journey. Yesterday Chuck did say that the scenery is just beautiful and they are snapping lots of photos so will will have a presentation once the arrive. Tomorrow they travel to Caraparecito, which is Ron Larsen's hacienda. It is a beautiful little village and they will have a wonderful place to relax and rest up. Their plan is to leave early tomorrow morning and arrive at Caraparecito in time for a late lunch. Then will then be able to spend a fair amount of time there before heading out the next day.

We got a call today from the guys arround 6:00 saying that they had arrived in Padilla, a small rural town in the department of Chuquisaca (Sucre). Today they biked 75km and said that is went pretty well. They found a quaint place to stay for the night and were able to do some general mainenance on their bikes as wel and wash their clothes. They were heading out to look for supper but noted that it is difficult to find much before 7:00. They are hoping to get off early tomorrow because they have their longest day in terms of kilometers ahead of them. They are slated to go 125km. Rumor has it that one cyclist may not go the whole distance tomorrow but for the kids sake, lets hope that is just a rumor:)

The four cyclists successfully complete the first day of their trip. The first 100km saw a climb of 500m befor a descent of 800m. Needless to say it was a very tiring day. They arrived in the market town of Tarabuco Sunday evening and found a nice relaxing place to stay while they recovered from their first day. They reached a max elevation of 4000m (13,123ft) and the commentary was that it didn't take long befor they felt like they had just finished a big futbol match.

Chuck call this morning at 7:30 to say they were begining their first leg. He said it is cold, which may make it harder to get going at first but I am sure they will appreciate it as the day goes on. Sucre has an average elevation of 2759m and it is currently 13 degrees celcius. We will wait and see what kind of stories the first day brings. Pitures will come at the end of the trip once the cameras arrive.

Stansberry Children's Home has a friend here in Bolivia who has given us a challenge. He is willing to put in $1500.00 toward the Sucre to Santa Cruz fundraiser if we can get FIVE others to do the same. Lets make it happen!!!

We are gearing up for our bike trip of 660 kilometers/410 miles from Sucre to Santa Cruz. For those who don't know, the reason for this trip is to have an adventure and we would also like to give you an opportunity to participate with us in this adventure by sponsoring us. All monies will go directly to operations at the Stansberry Children’s Home. Here is how it works: you can choose any one or more of the following cyclists and pledge a certain amount per km completed. For example if you would like to sponsor Marcos Hooley at the rate of $1.00 per km and he makes the full trip of 660 km you would then be donating $660 towards Stansberry. You may also donate a set amount for the entire trip instead of per km. These are the participants: Marcos Hooley a volunteer from the US, Benone Tomaz Silva Neto a volunteer from Brazil, Chuck Paetkau from Canada and Paul Paetkau from canada. This will be taking place beginning the 12th of January until the 19th. Two thirds of this trip will be made on mountain roads of rock and dirt and the rest on pavement.

If you would like to sponsor a cyclist, find their profile below and add a comment to it that states the following information:

Your name:
How much you will be sponsoring:
E-mail address:
(Optional)
Words or encouragement to the rider

Stay tuned for additional updates.

...since our last post. Not really but it may feel that way. It has been a year though since the project started. When the major constructional developments were completed it didn't feel like there was that much more too see. But now we have some photo's of the completed houses along with the long awaited MOVING DAY! For the past few weeks we have frantically been working with the new parents, buying furniture and appliances, putting in gas lines, and generally just working on all the details that have to take place. This week we will hopefully finish the curtains, get hot water heaters, and work on general maintenace problems. The new parents and the children from the home all moved into the houses yesterday, Saturday March 31. 










The inside of the houses on the morning of moving day.  We didn't have everything ready but enough to get started.



Moving the mattresses.





We hope to buy new matresses for those who need them, but it is a large cost so we needed to purchase other things that were more urgent first. 





These are some of the plates and cups we bought for the houses.  We are doing our best to supply the kitchens but we need a little time with people living in the houses to get a better idea of exactly what we need.



Chuck making his last rounds to make sure everyone has everything they need.  The houses are now alive and functioning (also very noisy inside we need to get all the curtains made).

Here is an updated view of the Stansberry property taken from Google Earth. You can see the construction of the three casitas and how they sit on our property. We are very excited about the progress and hope to be finished with the building sometime within the next month (or two).

This post may not be interesting to everyone but hopefully to some. I like to see things in process and most of the building is done differently. Not to many really advanced tools and lots of manpower. Here a a few photos of the tiling process that is going on right now.

 The back porch tiles, this is the same tile we used in all the bedrooms.  It's super cheap and most of our newer buildings are all this tile.




They just finished grouting the tiles with a grout mixed with red pigment.




These are the wall tiles in the bathroom.  I'm not sure if this is common but the workers use nails as spacers.




In the kitchen getting ready to put in the counter top that you see on the right, those are for all three of the houses.




The finished tile in the living room, it's at a 45 degree angle to the wall and then around the walls there is a border of tiles square with the wall.  It looks a little lite but I'm confident it won't show dirt as well as many of the other options we had.




You can see the blue tiles that we used on the floors in the bathrooms.  I think the doorways turned out looking really nice.  Those shoes belong to the workers.  They camp out in the house for their midday siestas.  One guy even has a mosquito net set up in the bathroom to sleep under.




This is the finished wall tiles in the bathroom.  The floor is a different shade of blue which you can see i the photo above.  It looks a different color because it is filthy with construction dust.

Well, they changed the completion date to be the end of September but I can say that they will be working till the end of October. Which still falls into our time so we are good. Here are a few pictures of the progress.



House number two with a finished roof and flooring in progress.



The last room to be tiled in Katie's house. Tatiana inspecting the work.



The three houses from afar. You wouldn't know that we live in the city.

Within the past two weeks, the builders have completed the roof on the second house and have begun constructing the rafters for the third. In Katie's house we are now preparing to put down the bathroom and floor tiles. You will also see in the pictures that the windows have been put in on two of the houses. THe glass will be cut and installed towards the end of the project. The contractors told me that they are looking to have all three houses complete by the end of September. We will see, but the end seems to be within the near future.


The livingroom and kitchen of Katie's House



Some images of the third house


The three houses

Here is a link to some photos of the Stansberry property posted on Gringo-News

No one said raising money has to be boring. Some members of the canadian board held a fundraising event in July to raise money for the Casitas projects and it was a big success. The key elements were:

1) A Biker
2) A lot of hair
3) Various cutting utilities

It was said that for a price you could have some of Bruce's precious hair cut and if enough money was paid you could have his head shaved...and i'm judging from the pics that enough money came in. In all this event raised around $9,000 US and put us that much closer to reaching our goal.







We want to thank you all for your creativity and the dedication you have for Bolivia ,Stansberry and our children here.