Update: Raising the Goal

 The news is all good news...we've gone past the $9,000 milestone and we have still have six weeks to go.

The perceptive among you might notice that our "thermometer" was moved from a target of $11,000 to a new target of $12,000. There are two reasons for this. Please allow me to explain...

 The first is that the original estimate was pretty spot on, but there are a few items that have gone up in price a little. As in other parts of the world, the Covid slowdown has led to some shortages and that's knocked prices up a percent or two.

The other, though, was explained to me Vincente today:

"Queria consultarte una cosa... Necesitamos hacer una actividad mas en el proyecto, una actividad que no estaba prevista. Crees que es posible ? Quisieramos mejorar la seguridad en el muro exterior, atras del albergue. Este muro es muy bajo y siempre tenemos problema en este lugar. Varias veces hombres entraron x alli en las noches, para ver las chicas o para robar su ropa que esta secando, y ellas tienen mucho miedo. Ademas en varias oportunidades unas niñas albergadas se escaparon x alli. Son las niñas que tienen más problemas graves, màs que todo las niñas que la policia nos trae cuando las encuentran en la calle, a veces con drogas o alcoholizadas."

For those who are not fluent in Spanish, I will do my best (no online translator or dictionary!) to clarify:

"One more thing...We will need to do one more thing, one that I hadn't foreseen.  Do you think it's possible?  We want to improve the security by strengthening the exterior wall. The existing wall is really low and there have been problems.  A number of times, men have entered in the night to look at the girls or to steal clothes that are drying on the line, and this has the girls very scared.  Also, on occasion the girls who have been placed here have escaped over that wall.  [Translator's Note: It is not a jail, but some of the girls are placed there by court order, which is obviously preferable to being thirteen and on the streets.]  These are girls with serious problems, often with drugs and alcohol."

Vincente will get a solid estimate this coming week, but did say that "it shouldn't be all that expensive".  But the wall is an obvious necessity, so between that expense and the mild inflation, I feel it necessary to raise the goal up to $12,000.  And, as I've noted, if we end up with a few hundred or a few thousand dollars extra...there is plenty, plenty, plenty of need.

Finally, I will leave you with bricks. A lot of bricks. Bricks that YOU might have bought.



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