Monday, July 19, 2010

The El Portal de Belén Foundation meeting


June 25th P. Gregorio Santana (no relation to Maria) arrived in the USA to be present for the foundation meeting on the 6th of July. P. Gregorio is a young Dominican priest whom I am preparing for the future of the foundation when I no longer will be present. Sometime in the distant future, I hope, but death comes to all of us at one time or another.

Needless to say, P. Gregorio is a great baseball buff so we went to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Pictures of him and the DR display and Juan Marichal, first DR baseball player initiated in the Hall of Fame are also posted now.

The 6th of July I met earlier with the four-member committee that is working on redesigning our water system at the school and convent in Don Juan. The water in our well is drinkable but when it reaches the faucets it is polluted. We are trying to solve that problem with the hope that in the future we can develop a project to sell drinkable water cheaply to the people in the village of Don Juan. Right now a five-gallon jug of water costs 45 pesos or $1.23. We hope to reduce that cost by more than half. Included are pictures of the four men on this committee. We have set November 9th as the target date to accomplish the first phase of making the water drinkable on demand, as well as available on demand. With electricity off half the time, most often during the day, we must set up our own power supply, a goal for which a plan is in process. First picture is of Ed Hinchey, my cousin, Jim Gascon who has been raising the money for this project.
The second picture is Dave Kobernuss and Jim Ryders.
Also we have included a picture of most of the members of the foundation's board. In the photo of the foundation are Sally True, Tony Eisenhut, Stephen Younger, P. Gregorio, Juan Arroyo and Mike Schafer, not pictured are Peter Koch, Cathryn Obern and Greg Galvin.

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