another "jungle vacation" is in the books. as i was riding up the river in the boat i was trying to count how many times i had visited the village of Yorkin. if my memory serves me correctly, i think this was trip #10. the trip i made with Ibo about 2 weeks ago required a 90+ minute ride up the river since the water level was so low. they have had some heavy rains since, though, and this time it took only about 50 minutes. Benson and I had left from Heredia (where I live, outside San Jose) at about 5:30am and were getting into the boats around 11:30am. it rained a good part of the journey in the car, and was still a steady sprinkle by the time we were unloading. so i finally got to put to use my fancy one-size-fits-all "giant garbage bag with arm cut-outs and a hood" rain poncho. :) nice. upon arriving in Yorkin we headed straight into the main house of the Women's Organization for lunch and to unload. after the rain had stopped and we had our after lunch coffee pick-me-up we headed to the Health Clinic site to check out the progress. in the time since my last visit they had poured much of the concrete floor in the rooms and hallway and had cleared out the land and placed the columns for the public bathrooms at the back of the building.
unfortunately there had been some hold-ups in the roofing process, as the portable generator wasn't able to manage the energy usage required by the welding equipment. after several efforts with Plan B, C, & D it was finally determined that the metal roofing pieces that needed to be welded would have to be transported down the river a ways to a village where there was direct electricity available. once put together, the pieces would then have to be transported back up the river to the clinic site. as you can see, and probably have imagined, the challenges of remote jungle construction are many, but we know that there will always be a solution. it just may take a few "MacGyver" moves or exhausting the playbook of options, but as they say... "where there is a will, there is a way." and we are thankful to have a foreman with a will and a bit of a creative spirit, and a village that is willing to work together to get this clinic built.
here are some photos of the recent work!
the pharmacy - medicine will be distributed from this window
hallway down the center of the clinic (bathrooms in the back)
columns for the public bathrooms
start of the roofing process
a view of the clinic from the river
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