Casa Isabel

We never thought we would be grateful for the fact that our lovely trees on our Espinal property are enticing to birds and that they leave their droppings on any vehicle parked in the shade. For years it has been a problem. The lovely mahogany trees also form hard baseball size seed pods once a year and we have had cracked windshields on our van twice. So I found a parking spot where only back end was under a mango tree, and the mess was limited to the back end of the van. I could not pull it any further forward because a sinkhole had formed next to the old unused septic tank. Finally, our director told me to give up on the shade and park the van in the sun away from the trees and birds. Not a week later the high winds blew off the water tank from the roof of the house and it fell... right where the van had been parked. Since we have not been using the house, we did not notice that all the water had leaked out of the plastic 1100 L tank.  Leaving it vulnerable to the 50 mph gusts of wind that are common here in the fall and winter. 

Fortunately, the tank did not split from the fall and we can just put it back on the roof.  Unfortunately, the birds still love our trees.   One bit more to do to repair our program center, Casa Isabel, located in El Espinal, Oaxaca. We have not advanced much in the repairs to our property.  We need about 10,000 USD and have so far raised around 4,400 on GlobalGiving.  With the 100% match that was initiated in September to help projects recover from the earthquakes in Mexico, we will be receiving an additional 4,400 USD from GlobalGiving after the matching ends after December 31. That means with only 1,100 USD more in donations on GlobalGiving before December 31 and the match, we will have met our goal for repairs.  All your donations were matched at 100%. 

We have estimates for the repairs and have chosen a builder for the work at Casa Isabel. At Casa Angles, we closed off the space of the fallen wall with corrugated tin roofing sheets.  We have not yet come to an agreement yet with our neighbor about the repairs.  He propped up the ten meters of the wall that are still standing and put up a barbed wire fence in the opening, but we felt it was not enough, and then we began to get stray dogs roaming our property from his.  Now no one can see into our property from the outside and the dogs are gone as well.   We will have the funds to build a wall on our side of the property line, but we can do nothing until the old wall is completely torn down.  Negotiations are ongoing.

For now, the students are much safer, the dogs have been kept out and we are hoping to have the funds we need by the end of the year. 

This project was set up as a short-term micro project on GlobalGiving and is now closed. But we still have a repair project open  https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/mexico-earthquake-girls-student-housing-repairs/ and GlobalGiving will match at 100% every donation given to that project from now until December, so we are very near our goal.  As you look at your giving for the end of the calendar year please consider another donation to our project. Also, please share the project with your friends.  

We at Centro De Compartimiento wish you happy holiday season, and blessings this New Year.  We thank you for our ongoing support of our students.