September 2008 Adventures

September has really been a busy month.  Our first week was spent in Asuncion.  Our faithful Toyota Hilux needed a lot of basic maintenance.  So, we gave it to the Toyota shop for a full work up.  We borrowed the car of a missionary who was out of town, and began the process of exporting all our stuff from Paraguay and importing it into Nicaragua.  What a process!  We think we are about finished with documentation, just waiting to pay the bill.

After getting our truck back, we began our last 2 wells.  The first, our 27^th project, was at a Brethren church not far from where we lived in Santani.  It is a beautiful setting for a church, and wonderful folks to work with.  As our buying power for materials is dwindling, with the exchange rate of a dollar low, we have made some changes in how we run a project.  First, we hired our one trained driller, Cristian Aguayo; and then asked for all the other workers to be volunteers from the church.  They were faithful workers, working just as hard as a paid worker!  We also asked the church to provide a noon day meal for us.  That was a mixed blessing – “interesting” but filling.  One menu item that was different was a dessert.  They gave us a mug full of shelled raw peanuts, and covered them with syrup made from sugar cane.  To say it was very sweet is an understatement.  The best part was the fellowship we had each day with the church members.  Our web site has photos of the actual drilling, but here we wanted you to see our beautiful spectators.

The 2 ladies on the left were our cooks; the man on the right is the owner of the property and is 70 years young!

The following week we installed the pump at the Brethren church.  We then spent a day repairing a well that a Korean team had drilled a few months ago.  The repair for the Korean project only required a day.  The original hand pump was stuck in sand.  We bailed out the sand a little better, and installed a shorter pump cylinder on the hand pump.  The family should be drinking clear water today.

Our next & final project for Paraguay was at a public school in Oga Lata.  These folks had asked us for a well about 2 years ago when we drilled the well at the Oga Lata Methodist Church.  It’s a project we hoped we would have the time to complete.  Again, we asked for local volunteers to help with the drilling.  This group also provided lunch for us & our faithful lead driller, Cristian Aguayo.  The food was again “interesting” with great fellowship.  The school only needed a hand pump.  We are sure the 80 children who attend the school are having great fun playing in the water.  That activity isn’t country specific, but great fun for all kids.

We wanted to share with you as much as we know about our upcoming move to Nicaragua.  We will be shipping the drill rig & some of our household items by container.  The container is 20’ long and will hold 33 cubic meters.  The container will leave Asuncion, go around South America on the Atlantic side, come across the Panama Canal, and then up the Pacific to port in Chinandega, Nicaragua.  This journey will take about 45 days and cost around $8,000. 

We will be driving our blue Toyota Hilux; leaving Asuncion heading south to Mendoza, Argentina.  The reason we are beginning our trip by going south is the need to find a safe place to cross the Andes Mountains.  From our research, we have found that the safest crossing from here is at the Liberator Tunnel between Mendoza and Santiago, Chile.  In Chile, we will pick up the Pan American highway and head north through Chile, Peru, and into Ecuador.  In Guayaquil, Ecuador, we will ship the Toyota by container to Panama City, Panama.  This will avoid us driving through Columbia and southern Panama where the drug lords reign.  We’ll fly to Panama City, pick up the truck and then head through Panama, to Costa Rica, and on into Nicaragua.  We are planning about 37 days.  We are estimating our traveling cost to be around $7,000. 

Our container is scheduled to leave on October 15^th, and we will be pulling out on October 20^th.  This will be about a 5,000 mile journey for us.  We ask your prayers for the following: 

†        God’s peace as we say our good-byes.

†        God’s protection as we travel through these different countries.

†        God’s patience – we’ll be in a very small space for 37 days!  (We have books on tape)

†        God’s provision for additional funds to support this move.

If you would like to provide additional support for this move, please make checks payable to The Mission Society, and mark them Baker Special Projects #0264 SPJ – Nicaragua Move.  This move will cost around $15,000, but a new drill rig similar to what we have is about $35,000 plus shipping from the US.

We are looking at the possibility of creating an on-line “blog” to keep everyone posted about our travels.  We’ll let you know where to find this on the internet. 

We’re sorry this Newsletter is longer than normal, but we wanted to share with you as much as we could about our lives.

This is our last Newsletter from Paraguay, look forward to news from Chile or Peru in our October Newsletter!