4th Down and .40 to go

Well, we've built up the land with 4 completed lifts of material. We are planning on two more thinner lifts of 20cm each to arrive at our final height (hence 40 centimeters or .4 meters more). For the remainder of this phase the fill has been concentrated only under the building, making the process faster requiring only 3 days to truck in the material. On Saturday the test results were great, so the end of this phase is in sight! 
  It is pretty neat to stand on this platea and look over at the raised highway and notice that you are looking down now at the pavement. 
  So hopefully two weeks will bring this phase to a completion and let the CAT dealer have three machines back. I cannot emphasize how amazing the people at IMCA (the CAT dealer in the DR) have been - these machines have been provided at no cost to us. They do not want this publicly announced, but I feel you all - the people who have helped this project financially become a reality - should know of the generosity of a company here in the DR. They simply express time after time how happy they are to help us see this project through. Very Very generous.
  We also have a side project underway - the latrine that will serve all of the workers here for the next two years. As it turn out, this project has morphed into being the construction of one of the two septic tanks the clinic will need. So, we are now killing two birds with one stone! Thanks to Pablo's suggestion the first chamber on the large septic tank will be built and serve as the latrine during construction and then become part of the septic system - a great idea after encountering some soil-stability issues! Nothing like a problem to help the overall project become more efficient! Will post some pics later - we've been digging away at this 11 meter long hole in the ground!

And some pictures of the awesome equipment from IMCA/CAT and our builder/engineer Eduard ...


They arrived early January - 

and we are almost done needing them!

Vibrating Compactor

Dozer and Loader

Eduard (our Engineer/Builder) enjoying the test results.

Enjoy this holy week - my good friend Nicole pointed out an interesting cultural difference - The reasons/events behind our Easter and Christmas holidays are not celebrated on just two dates, the Dominicans prefer looking at these events as things that should be celebrated daily. 

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