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- Feb 4, 2015
- Messages
- 2,863
Agree - all the pics of those shacks, mixed with pics of the kids, really hits the heart. Great stuff.
Loving the factory pics too.
Brothers Giving Back
- Thread starter BradMc
- Start date
Loving the factory pics too.
BradMc
<b>Charity Liaison</b><br>BoM September 07
Trip re-cap
School Visit
The school had a big Presentation / Thank You to BOTL for supporting the school and the children, the kids all lite up with big smiles when we carried in the sports bag of baseballs, kick balls, jump ropes and soccer balls, The school was still using some of the stuff we took back last year, We had a great tour of the school, seeing the kids in there class rooms, computer class, art and drawing, the 3rd grade class put on a puppet show for us, we sat in on the English class , where only English was being spoken (that was fun to see and understand)..... Our trip to the satellite school was out side of the city near the dump, about 30 children attend this school, while the Mom or Dad go to work at the dump or the recycling pick up. This is like a one room school house, teaching in one class with all ages , having the old kids help the younger kids. This school is still set up very primitive, there is a well and a pump that is a battery operated system, some solar panels are used to assist charging the battery's, it is gravity flow into the cooking area, the food is brought up daily from the main school then reheated for the kids (This meal is allot of times the only real meal they have for the day) The school is teaching the kids about growing there own food, there is a two large garden plots that is used to teaching and supplementing the meals, any left over food from the garden goes out to the families in the near by village .........
The Build
The day of the build was a day to remember, showing up ready to work, even those we didn't speak Spanish we really didn't have any issues communicating , yes we had a few translators, but we were able to get the job done ... The TECHO volunteers would show us or ask us to do something and the way we went , From off loading the truck, to digging 15 holes (in bed rock) to set the footing for the flooring, holding and leveling the walls, making the rafters for the tin roof. We did all this with 2 digging bars, 3 or 4 shovels, a few hammers, two screwdrivers and one small level....Even when the rain hit we kept going, we didn't let a lil rain stop us (let me tell u, the clouds opened and dumped rain both days , but we didn't let It dampen our mood or drive to get the house done.......it was allot of hard work, but it felt so good to see the family walk into a new safe home, with a real floor, not dirt, real walls , not plastic or cardboard.....I do have plans of taking another group to do this again. If ur interested, have some time to work hard, sweat and smoke a few cigars drop me a PM I'll explain more ......
Factory Tours
We also did have 3 great Factory tours , Drew Estates, Joya JdN, MyFather , All the factory's very interesting and were some what alike, but very different at the same time, size, the way of making or storing , even rolling was a lil different in each place. At each Factory they were very interested in what OE was all about and wanted more information .....
The Stay
I have said this before , we are very lucky to have Drew Estates giving us the support they have so far, They picked us up and dropped us off at the hotel, drove us all over Esteli, Feed us like kings (we had to ask them not to feed so much) , the housing accommodation were outstanding , and we did have a few cigar up in the lounge each night......Thanks to JD ,Henry, Padro and Jessie and all the Drew Estates Cigar Safari Staff for supporting this operation we couldn't have done it without them ...Thanks to BOTL for supporting OE
I'd really like to thank Ryan Wagner, Joe Barnas and Joel DuBay for going along on this adventure .......
Wow what a trip to remember...
BOTL / OE is ROCKING Esteli..........
School Visit
The school had a big Presentation / Thank You to BOTL for supporting the school and the children, the kids all lite up with big smiles when we carried in the sports bag of baseballs, kick balls, jump ropes and soccer balls, The school was still using some of the stuff we took back last year, We had a great tour of the school, seeing the kids in there class rooms, computer class, art and drawing, the 3rd grade class put on a puppet show for us, we sat in on the English class , where only English was being spoken (that was fun to see and understand)..... Our trip to the satellite school was out side of the city near the dump, about 30 children attend this school, while the Mom or Dad go to work at the dump or the recycling pick up. This is like a one room school house, teaching in one class with all ages , having the old kids help the younger kids. This school is still set up very primitive, there is a well and a pump that is a battery operated system, some solar panels are used to assist charging the battery's, it is gravity flow into the cooking area, the food is brought up daily from the main school then reheated for the kids (This meal is allot of times the only real meal they have for the day) The school is teaching the kids about growing there own food, there is a two large garden plots that is used to teaching and supplementing the meals, any left over food from the garden goes out to the families in the near by village .........
The Build
The day of the build was a day to remember, showing up ready to work, even those we didn't speak Spanish we really didn't have any issues communicating , yes we had a few translators, but we were able to get the job done ... The TECHO volunteers would show us or ask us to do something and the way we went , From off loading the truck, to digging 15 holes (in bed rock) to set the footing for the flooring, holding and leveling the walls, making the rafters for the tin roof. We did all this with 2 digging bars, 3 or 4 shovels, a few hammers, two screwdrivers and one small level....Even when the rain hit we kept going, we didn't let a lil rain stop us (let me tell u, the clouds opened and dumped rain both days , but we didn't let It dampen our mood or drive to get the house done.......it was allot of hard work, but it felt so good to see the family walk into a new safe home, with a real floor, not dirt, real walls , not plastic or cardboard.....I do have plans of taking another group to do this again. If ur interested, have some time to work hard, sweat and smoke a few cigars drop me a PM I'll explain more ......
Factory Tours
We also did have 3 great Factory tours , Drew Estates, Joya JdN, MyFather , All the factory's very interesting and were some what alike, but very different at the same time, size, the way of making or storing , even rolling was a lil different in each place. At each Factory they were very interested in what OE was all about and wanted more information .....
The Stay
I have said this before , we are very lucky to have Drew Estates giving us the support they have so far, They picked us up and dropped us off at the hotel, drove us all over Esteli, Feed us like kings (we had to ask them not to feed so much) , the housing accommodation were outstanding , and we did have a few cigar up in the lounge each night......Thanks to JD ,Henry, Padro and Jessie and all the Drew Estates Cigar Safari Staff for supporting this operation we couldn't have done it without them ...Thanks to BOTL for supporting OE
I'd really like to thank Ryan Wagner, Joe Barnas and Joel DuBay for going along on this adventure .......
Wow what a trip to remember...
BOTL / OE is ROCKING Esteli..........
Smoqman
BoM Aug. 2014
I'm so proud of the way my brothers have conveyed the story. It was my second trip to Esteli, and it was mind blowing.
I took about 900 megs of photos, if anybody wants to see them I have a link from which they can be downloaded. It's filled with all kinds of silly stuff too. P.m. me for the link, but know that Brad, Joe and Ryan have done a fantastic job of recapping this trip and really bringing the story to us in a meaningful way.
I took about 900 megs of photos, if anybody wants to see them I have a link from which they can be downloaded. It's filled with all kinds of silly stuff too. P.m. me for the link, but know that Brad, Joe and Ryan have done a fantastic job of recapping this trip and really bringing the story to us in a meaningful way.
