Hydraulic Ram Pump

In September I was able to take a leave of absence from work and spend a month working with Walter, the new agriculture and environment program coordinator. It felt very good to be back in Honduras! I got to see a lot of old friends, and the looks on peoples faces when I showed up on their doorsteps was priceless. I think many people thought they would never see me again.
Anyway, during this trip we tried out an interesting pump design that uses the flow of water to pump water up a hill.

It is called a hydraulic ram pump. The design I used is from Clemson University. http://www.clemson.edu/irrig/equip/ram.htm
So, thank you Clemson. I assume since you posted this design info on the internet that it was fair game for me to use.
I did update the design a bit (basically stripped it down of anything not totally necessary to make it cheaper and lighter). One was built and tested here in Minneapolis which I brought with me in an extra suitcase. We built another one in Honduras. The components turned out to be cheaper in Honduras which was a nice surprise. Who knows about the quality, only time will tell.

The basic concept of the pump is to capture a large flow of water going down a decline, convert some of it's momentum into pressure, and use this pressure to pump a smaller portion of the original water up hill to the destination.

Here is a video of it installed in a field of one of the promoters in the community of Nueva Palestina, Patuca.

Here is Omar and his little girl showing the resulting flow of water up the hill in the plot where the group is growing plantains.

I did make up a little training manual in Spanish much of which is just the Clemson material translated.




You can also access the document by clicking here.


I also need to Thank Engineer 775 on Youtube for the video ram pump lessons (1,2, and 3).
Some of the design changes are taken from him as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y_WWxWdn5A

Pila Project Update

By Matt:

It has been almost a full year since our last post on this blog. A lot has changed. We now live and work in Minneapolis, but we still keep in touch with our Honduran friends, and we had the chance to go back recently. Katie and I took a week off in late August to go visit our friends in Honduras.
Here is an update on the water storage tank project that many of you helped support. In 2011, during the dry season the community members in El Guanabano along with the support of Diaconia Nacional built the "Pilas".

Here are two of my favorite people in the world: Toribio Reyes and his wife Genoveva. Toribio likes to joke around and is very animated. He also knows about a million hilarious honduran "sayings" which are really hard to translate. Genoveva is a very sweet honduran mom. They thanked us over and over for helping out with the Pila. They are very proud of it, and of the new house they have built. I was there when the old house fell over because the wood had rotted out. That was a bad time for them, but now it is nice to see them getting ahead.




Here is Maria with here pila. It was raining on this day, and part of the project included gutters so that rain water could be easily gathered and stored.
That brings up one of the difficulties the project has encountered. The water project that previously served this community has come to a halt because the electricity bill for the electric pumps that move the water is too high for the community to pay. That, combined with the fact that even when the system was functioning a lot of people didn't get water regularly made people not very motivated to pay the monthly bill (everyone got charged a base price regardless of usage). The price isn't very high, but most of these people make around $5 per day working in the fields as hired hands. It is hard to make ends meet with that kind of income, especially if you have a bunch of kids in school.
To solve this problem these folks have decided to dig a well closer to their group of homes so that they can have a nearby source of water that is dependable. They plan to dig the well in the dry season of 2012. It will be dug by hand by the community members. Diaconia will provide materials, and technical assistance of an experienced builder who knows how to dig wells in this way.

Sadly, in the time we have been gone another house has fallen over due to rain and rotting wood. Noel's house fell over when nobody was home, thankfully nobody was hurt. He is working on a new one, slowly. Walter, the environment program coordinator with Diaconia is working to organize a community work day where everyone pitches in to help put up a new house for Noel, his wife Claudia and there little boy.

Here is a picture of a bean called Alacin (a type of cowpea) that we promoted in this community. It is producing well and is edible as green beans and also as dried beans. It is also used as a cover crop for helping maintain soil fertility.



Here is a local mother preparing some of the beans to be eaten.

To date they have built 7 pilas. A little money is left over, which will be used to build the well this spring. The funding has focused on a sub-community of El Guanabano called El Encinal where the need is greatest. It was decided to meet this need first, including building the well, before spreading out with more pilas because the other houses are lower down, and have more access to good water. The full amount of funding for the project has not been met yet, but I believe it was around 3/4 of the way there as of August.
I did some checking, and any other funds that are given to CRWRC for this water project will be used in this community, even if the amount raised exceeds the original budget.
Thanks for all who helped support this effort and have helped our friends have better access to water. They thank God for this blessing.
We will keep you updated as we hear more about the project.
Also, I was able to go back to Honduras for a month this past Septepmber, so I will be blogging little bits of that from time to time.

-Matt DK

Water Tanks for El Guanabano

Many people have been asking us if there is a way to keep supporting the work that we were doing in Honduras. At this point we are asking our supporters to stop donating to the "Matt and Katie DeKam" account. We encourage you to continue supporting the ongoing work of CRWRC by giving to their general fund. Or if you want to make a difference in the lives of our dear friends in el Guanabano you can send your donations to CRWRC and write "Water Storage Honduras-505848" on the check or donation card.

Just before we left this water tank project was approved.
Here is a powerpoint that will explain the project a little more:















Every little bit counts, so please consider helping bring clean water to these families.

Insured!

By Katie

About 10 minutes ago we got a call from our insurance agent with the good news: Matt got accepted for insurance! Thank you for everyone who was praying for that specific need. Once again God opened the door just in time, his time.

Matt is hoping to start chemotherapy this week sometime. He'll have two strong doses with three weeks of recovery after each dose. We had spent a lot of the last week looking around and settled on an oncology clinic about a half hour from where we're living. The social worker, financial counselor and doctor there have really gone to bat for our case, so it was a great choice.

In the mean time I am hoping to substitute teach, although I still haven't gotten a call to work. Today I'm applying to another school district. Matt's still putting in a lot of time on reports and things that still need to be wrapped up from Honduras and I've been translating some of those things when he's done.

We're looking forward to getting rolling on the treatments and now that we are both insured, that will be a little easier on the mind. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and encouragement.

Back in Minnesota

By Katie

After a whirlwind series of goodbyes in Honduras, we boarded the plane last Thursday and arrived in Minnesota. We spent the weekend with our families who all drove up to see us and bring us our fall and winter clothes. We're getting things all set up now and still working on wrapping up unfinished business in Honduras too.

Matt will have his first doctor appointment with an oncologist on Friday, so we're really looking forward to that. We had the clinic translate all his medical documents from Honduras and do another pathology report, so those will be ready by the first appointment. We still haven't gotten a confirmation that Matt has insurance, so if you're looking for something specific to pray for, that would be what we need most.

Matt's been feeling ok, but still gets pretty tired sometimes. There's a lot to adjust to right now, and on top of recovering from the surgery, that seems pretty normal. Another prayer request is our transition and patience in the face of a lot of uncertainty. But, we have seen how God has brought us this far, and we know that as long as we continue to trust in Him and pray for His help and guidance, He will be faithful to complete what he started.

Thank you to everyone for all of your support. Thanks to those of you who have emailed us to show us that you are there with us (and sorry I haven't been great about responding). We have never been lonely on this difficult road thanks to all of you.


Here's proof that we're in Minnesota, in case you didn't believe us. Fall really is beautiful here!

Adios, Honduras. Hello, Minneapolis.

By Katie

Prior to our appointment with the doctors yesterday, we had prayed that God would clearly show us what to do. He did just that. There were a few cancer cells that had spread outside of the original tumor and into the lymph system, rendering observation here in Honduras a non-option, and a diagnosis that was just a little more serious. We had made a little series of "if this happens, then we'll do this" statements, all which ended up pointing us home. We had been working on "if we come home" plans, and today so many of them fell into place, that it was obvious that God opened the doors wide open for us to return. (This includes insurance! Our policy we have here doesn't cover us in the US, but it looks like an insurance agent we have been working with has found us a plan that will likely accept Matt). In the US Matt can get the care that he really needs and we'll be supported by a bigger network of friends and family.

So, in the next seven days, we'll go back to say goodbye to our friends in Olancho. We'll try to do our best to share with them what they have meant to us. We'll pack up our entire house into two suitcases each and figure out what to do with what remains. Now we can focus on closure here, or closure as best we can with such short notice and such a long to-do list left of unfinished projects here in Honduras. But God will be with us, and we'll need him this week and as we return to life in Minnesota. I'm not really sure what to think about it all.

We'll arrive in Minneapolis/St. Paul on Thursday, September 9 and go to live with Matt's sister Megan and her husband Shaun. We don't have jobs, but those will come soon, we hope. Pray for us and the big transition ahead! Thank you. A big thanks too to EVERYONE who helped us make the preparations to come home. This has not been a lonely experience with so many people helping out. More of that to come, I'm sure :)

Stage 1!

By Katie

Yesterday we talked to the pathologist who studied Matt's tumor. She told us that the cancer was only in stage 1 and very likely did not spread to any other part of his body. She said he has an excellent prognosis. Praise the Lord!

Today we'll meet with the doctors who operated on Matt. They'll give us their advice for a treatment plan. Also, yesterday I got three emails from people saying that there are three oncologists from the States who are all willing to look at Matt's pathology report and CT scan and give their opinions too. We're going to take them all up on it.

Matt's been doing better and better after the surgery, but certainly not 100% yet. That will take a while.

Please continue to pray for us. We will have a big decision to make in the next few days about when, where, how and whether to do treatments. Also, we've been holding up pretty well, but the stress of all this is certainly something we are contending with. Pray that God's hand is strong to hold us up and guide us. We can certainly feel God's presence and thank you for your prayers so far.