Bless you all! Time for celebration!!!

Everyone who donated should have received an invitation from me to a ceremony of appreciation and handing over of the keys to A Home for Juan Manuel next Saturday, March 13, at 11 am. If you have supported this effort and the internet intercepted your invitation, please send me a private message and I will resend it to you. We are limiting attendance due to the pandemic. Masks and social distancing are required. We will conduct tours of the small home for two people at a time, and Juan Manuel and Don Rodolfo will join us. It will be a short and simple ceremony, but full of love and caring—you all have done a beautiful thing!

This past week we:

• Built a simple back patio and installed the donated washboard and a water hookup.
• Purchased and installed a water heater and protection with another very generous donation earmarked for this purpose.
• Received the donation of the major part of a brand-new refrigerator, with us making up the final 1225 pesos, thanks to Mueblería Valdez and Liz Garza.
• Our two wonderful painter volunteers, Martin and Marie-Anne Glaude, finished painting the inside of the house.

We had a hiccup today when we went out to the house, as water was coming off the roof. It seems the float in the tinaco has broken and is not registering when the tank is full. Zata fixed that once already, but we shut the water off and he will fix it again and hopefully for good tomorrow.

This week his goal is to add fill to even out the front yard a bit. It won’t be anywhere near perfect, but it’ll be better. Zata will also move the extra donated gravel to the side yard, so the yard looks cleaner and more finished. Finally and best of all, he will build a front sidewalk leading up to the house. We had hoped for a ramp, and Kay Rodgers kindly collected money for it, but what we have available isn’t quite enough. Thus, we have opted to have Zata put in a concrete walkway with extra deep steps (five in total, I believe, as it’s a steep grade up to the house). Juan Manuel should be able to use it with his crutches no problem, and it should be easy enough to add a ramp later if and when he needs to use a wheelchair. Hopefully that day won’t come!

Thank you and may good karma shower over you for a long time! The home is much better and more solid than originally planned, thanks to all of you: indoor kitchen and bath, hot water, brand-new microwave and refrigerator, bright coats of paint. I look forward to thanking you live and in person on Saturday, as do Juan Manuel, Don Rodolfo, Greg, Jorge, Yolanda and Zata.