Pre-Construction started today!

This morning came early after a good night sleep in a bunk room that I shared in the clinic but the cold shower took care of the cloudy morning mind.

The grader operator was up and running by 7:00 a.m. and now it is noon, he has the makings of a field in front of me. I staked off an area 210 feet long x 120 feet wide this morning when he started and he has been doing a great job so far. In the background, you will see the makings of our pump house. I pre-ordered a well to be drilled so we could draw water for our Toro irrigation system. I was hoping for a drilled well and a well head but in the Dominican, every well comes with a concrete building and a tank on top for gravity feeding water when the power is out (70% of the time, there is no electricity).

I am waiting for the arrival of our PVC pipe and a visit from the local sod farmer.....getting our container from the port is not going well so far.

I made arrangements for some local labor to assist us for the week. We will have 5 Dominican's help our team of 11, and on Thursday, I am trying to get 15 men to work with us as we hope to complete the field and lay an acre of sod. Labor in the Dominican get's paid $5.00 per day, and the sugar cane workers get paid by the ton of cane cut and loaded and on average, make $3-$4 per day. On the orphanage, and with the help we have hired, we will pay them a bit more, but we have to be careful that we don't set a precedent for the full time staff that work here.