[fsf60k] Re: fsf60k Digest V4 #129
- From: Carol Werblin <cwerblin@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <fsf60k@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:15:12 +0000
Dear Friends-
I know that I rarely respond to any of our meetings, but I felt as though I had
to this time. The meeting last week felt very different to me- I found it
engaging, informative, and it filled me with renewed energy. There were old
faces, and many new fresh faces- and it felt good to hear the input of so many
people. I felt connected for the first time in a long time- maybe I'm just a
visual learner- Pete's blackboard work seemed to make things click for me. It
made me anxious to want to see this water project go ahead and finally get
completed. There was much talk about whether or not any of Friend's money would
be needed to complete the water project. After so much research, money, and
hard work, I would hate to see us just hand it over to the government for
completion. I too have a good feeling about this project. I would still like to
think that we had something to say about bringing water to the people of Nuevo-
even if it means having to spend some money to do it. Oversight by someone
knowledgeable in Nica is extremely important- but because of my past
disconnect- I don't know who this should be. Let's not be hasty in our
decision-making. Perhaps final decisions can be made after the adult trip in
the spring- when many of us can meet potential representatives for us, and
maybe even have the chance to speak with the mayor of Telica.
I was also very excited to learn about the "field of dreams" project and would
like to be more involved in seeing this project come to fruition.
Lastly- I wanted to thank you all for your support- not only monetarily- but
emotionally as well for the work I do here locally. I love the people of
Nicaragua- but I also have a very strong connection to those living right here
in Huntington- and while they may not be impoverished- they are living in
extreme poverty. Thank you for your confidence in my work, but I feel somewhat
uncomfortable receiving a $1,000 check. These are funds that will be used for
diverse purposes over time, and I think I would feel more comfortable with some
oversight from Friends as to how it will actually be spent.
I am looking forward to my Feb. trip to Nica with Students, and hope that I
will also be able to go with Friends (if we can possibly have it overlap with
some school vacation time).
Carol
> Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 01:07:07 -0500
> From: FSF60K@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To: "FSF60K DigestSubscribers"@freelists.org
> Subject: fsf60k Digest V4 #129
>
> fsf60k Digest Fri, 06 Nov 2009 Volume: 04 Issue: 129
>
> In This Issue:
> [fsf60k] meaty meeting
> [fsf60k] Re: Telica/NA water
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 16:36:39 -0500
> Subject: [fsf60k] meaty meeting
> From: richard wiltamuth <dwiltam@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> dear friends,
> an uptick in attendance was observed at last night's meeting, including
> youthful faces, and the participants could not have been disappointed by the
> activity that transpired.
> 1. the water troubles in nuevo amanecer are legendary, but a new plan could
> be the arsenic-free solution. the mayor of telica, whose municipality
> includes nuevo, wants to drill a new well and pipe cooler and less
> contaminated water two miles to nuevo and two adjacent communities at a
> total cost of about $125,000. friends' share would be about $25,000. mike
> cipoletti has met with the mayor, and the mayor has provided a proposal. but
> it is very general, so george pardo would like to hear your questions about
> specific costs, water quality, etc. his address is gpardo@xxxxxxxxxx, and he
> is standing by to receive your thoughts and relay them to the relevant
> authorities. another nonprofit with extensive experience in nica, world
> vision, is being asked to pay about $30,000, and that group has been
> contacted in managua to gets its view of the proposal, and was sent a copy
> of the mayor's plan. also, george will contact the office of elmer zelaya, a
> hydrologist in leon who supervised the much larger chacraseca water
> installation. zelaya might be hired as our onsite representative. in the
> meantime, friends agreed to continue helping to pay for water to be trucked
> to nuevo.
> 2. friends agreed to provide carol werblin $1,000 for her social action
> organization, separate from hihi, that provides food and clothing to very
> poor people in the huntington station area. that leaves $6,500 in the
> liquidnet award fund that needs to be spent locally. millie willen suggested
> using some funds to provide aid to college-bound students.
> 3. pete white has sent a letter to each major league baseball team asking
> for support for the "fields of dreams" project in chacraseca.
> 4. he has received paperwork for setting up friends chapters under irs
> provisions. there may be three---northeast colleges coordinated by mike,
> miami-dade college and james madison university supervised by shari
> kornblatt. these chapters would be responsible for their own bookkeeping,
> liability insurance, etc. in a related matter, pete and others again
> expressed concern about continuing to handle the books for the high school
> group. interest earned on the funds is exceeded by the cost of the tax
> accountant's work, and many hours of volunteer work is required to keep the
> records. the matter may be resolved before dec. 31 to avoid the status quo
> for another tax year.
> 5. interest was expressed in an adult trip to nicaragua, possibly next
> spring.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Subject: [fsf60k] Re: Telica/NA water
> From: michael cipoletti <ikecip@xxxxxxx>
> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 17:08:57 -0500
>
> hey all i suppose i will comment on these various points below..
> On Nov 6, 2009, at 11:28 AM, Peter White wrote:
>
> > Hola George and Others,
> > Great to have a good discussion on the current proposal to bring
> > water to
> > NA community through the efforts of Telica municipality. I'm sure
> > that all
> > who are close with this project over the past months/years want this
> > done,
> > and all have important questions about it. Bill already emailed with
> > a few
> > of his immediate concerns. One thing we agreed on last night was that
> > Conchita could rely on some of the $6500 she has for water to keep the
> > deliveries going past Nov. 30 to Dec. 31. Here are a few of the
> > concerns
> > which I made note of last night:
>
> i think that 6500 should be used to get all the studies done (as
> detailed in the detail lacking proposal)..
> the studies will cost about 3000 dollars... so that still leaves 3500
> for water..
> should we increase trucks beginning in december?
> >
> > . need for specifics/hard data/estimates/costs, much of what is in the
> > proposal is general.
>
> the proposal is general and specifics will be laid out in my november
> meetings... they have done projects like this before in other
> communities in the municipality of telica and i plan on visiting at
> least one of those in november...
> >
> > . design questions i.e. gallons per day, cleanliness of the water,
> > testing
> > results, temperature, any contaminents, etc.
>
> the results of the study will dictate the design (from what i have
> been told)
> the water is clean and the temperature is cool (i will come back with
> a specific #)
> again this is in the budget and we have only had two meetings in
> regards to this project (one in august one last monday)
> >
> > . need to bring in graft prevention/oversight. i.e. Seeing if Elmer
> > Zelaya
> > or other recognized hydrologist would become involved as an expert,
> > provide
> > his opinion, oversee things since Chac. water project got done under
> > such
> > watchfulness and not by amateurs. We could pay him if nec.
>
> i would not be in favor of zelaya being in charge of oversight.. i
> think that the chacraseca project has been poorly managed (mostly
> because he allowed juan enrique too much control)
> he travels a lot and has a great deal on his plate with his own work..
> please do not misunderstand elmer is an intelligent man but i think we
> would be better served with somebody else monitoring the project for
> us...
> i can find somebody through UNAN that will be reliable..
> >
> > . timetable for all this.
>
> the testing should be done asap... the project will commence in
> february...
> >
> > . Joanne's question regarding "Would this get done if we didn't kick
> > in?" Is
> > it rare that a private group like ours is teaming up with a Nica gov't
> > entity to do this, and for how many towns, and are the townspeople
> > kicking
> > in? because if they are, the NA people are penniless. Is our $25000
> > THIER
> > portion?
> >
> the project probably would not get done if vision mundial and fs60k
> did not kick in.. it is a huge undertaking in the second poorest
> country in the hemisphere.. keep in mind that the government kicked 0
> into the chac water project... the people will be kicking in by paying
> monthly (small amounts were discussed in last weeks meeting but i will
> get more specifics in the next meeting)... to make the 25000 dollar
> amount clearer... i had dinner with the telica mayors office and
> vision mundial in august with conchita.. we discussed the possibility
> of this project being done like this.. vision mundial said they could
> probably kick in 20-30k and i said friends has a limit of 25k on this
> project.. then the mayor went to NA and they put a 1+ million cord
> line item into the budget for this project.. we kick 25k VM kicks 30k
> and we have a project..
> > . Will the recipients of the water have a monthly bill? If so, how
> > much? Can
> > the NA people pay?
> this was answered to some degree in the last bullet.. they have money
> for beer and cigarettes they will have money for water.. (most of the
> families had money for the half assed system we had and some of the
> families that did not pay had money but would not pay do to the poor
> administration and bs associated with that diesel generator)
> >
> > . Are the Telica people experienced in this type of work?
> yes they have done projects like this.. marlons job is like a director
> of public works kind of thing.. these are the kinds of projects they
> execute on a regular basis...
> >
> > . What's Vision Mundial's take on all this?
> they are very much in favor of it..
> >
> > . Where did the sum of $25000 come from, the exact amount we have
> > for water?
> answered above...
> >
> > One thing almost all agreed to was that if all our questions are
> > answered to
> > our satisfaction, and if it's good water and we're dealing with
> > trustworthy
> > people, then it seems, in George's words "the perfect thing to do."
> > But
> > we've all seen corruption, big and small, over the years. So things
> > must be
> > done exactly right. We cannot just turn over all our money to an
> > entity we
> > don't know without being certain, and being partners with checks and
> > balances/oversight, etc.
> i agree that we need to be on top of this.. i have a good feeling
> about this project.. more importantly conchita has a good feeling
> about the project.. if she smelled a fish she would say something to
> me... i will be continuing my monthly trips and will stay on top of
> the execution of this project.. while i realize i am not a technical
> expert i do have a good business mind and a lot of current experience
> dealing with projects in nicaragua.. i think we have the potential
> "perfect solution" and this solution could represent (in conjunction
> with the work Vision Mundial is doing and a proposed Pulperia" in
> Nuevo (in conjunction with Pro Mujer) the beginning of a change in
> Nuevo... Conchita Rita Leyla and Rosa are running a successful
> literacy campaign with a dozen plus 18-25 year olds and they have a
> nice crop of corn and sorghum (3 manzanas) coming in.. a new dawn is
> coming in nuevo and we need to put the power in the hands of these
> young people... but first we as an organization must provide the
> foundation for life WATER!!
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of fsf60k Digest V4 #129
> ****************************
>
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