Chile Forum

We got this email at 3 AM this morning from the people in Cauquenes. It will make your heart melt. We all collectively did a good thing. A VERY good thing.

This is sent on behalf of just 17 families in one area of Chile. We ( allchile.net ) helped way more people than this (at least a thousand people), but it is nice to get a few of their perspective on what we did.

Would someone please translate and post this, I am really tired.

Querida Sandra...

No sabes lo bien recibida que fue la ayuda enviada por ustedes. Ésta se entregó a un grupo de 17 familias en el sector "El Litre", a unos 30 kms de Cauquenes; literalmente en el campo.
Enviamos fotografías que dan testimonio de la recepción de la ayuda en el aeródromo "El Boldo", de la organización de ésta por parte de jovenes hijos de leones, para creación de canastas familiares y de cómo se hizo la entrega de ayuda en el sector " El Litre". Además de fotos de como está nuestra ciudad de Cauquenes
Ahora sólo falta confirmar ayuda de los doctores, y si es posible gestionar más ayuda en alimentos y útiles de aseo. Porque dentro de una o dos semanas la ayuda se acaba y las familias necesitan de todos nosotros.

Con Cariño.......Angela Lazo, dama leona, Club de Leones de Cauquenes.

Click to enlarge

By the way, vince said last night that one of the loads he flew in was the largest load he had ever put on his plane.

Letter received in Spanish:


"Dear Zandra

You have no idea how well received your aid has been which was handed out to a group of 17 families in the "El Litre" area, about 30 kms from Cauquenes; virtually in the bush.
Attached are photos documenting reception of the assistance at the El Boldo aerodrome which was organized by local young people, children of the Lyons Club members, who have been putting together family baskets in that particular area. Also attached are photos of the conditions of the Cauquenes town.

The only thing pending is the doctors' assistance and hopefully more aid in food and hygiene products since in a few weeks, all aid will be finished and these families will still need our help.

Warm regards,

Angela Lazo - Member, Lyons Club of Cauquenes

We are considering adopting both communities, just we don't want to bite off more than we can handle or make promises we can not deliver on.

Vince's brother Charles that met with the fishing association on Isla mocha said it this morning in my kitchen basically that way. He said, "I told them I was just investigating the situation and could not promise anything, but simply by showing up I was making an unspoken promise to do something".

We want to do something for both, if we can work out how.

we are also working on the doctor situation.

I can help with more issues in Cauquenes as I have the contacts there. We can perhaps look at some community adopting there and would like to head up that effort since I have such an attachment to the community there. Let me know.

I just want to say thanks to everyone that has donated.

We have received to the Bank of America account another couple thousand dollars.

As soon as we have a chance, we are going to post the current accounting for this operation so far. It does however look like we are going to have some extra funds to target at the new projects. This is besides things like we are still buying gas for aid trucks.

The three nice bite size low cost high impact projects we are targeting right now:

--- fishing nets for the fishermen on isla mocha (getting the quotes)
--- fire stations in the U.S. are donating fire fighting equipment to rebuild destroyed fire stations and put to work all the trained volunteer firefighters. They are having problems with the shipping. We have shipping channels, and I think we can move 1-2 tons of equipment fairly cheaply.
--the wine harvest for small growers around Chile is in danger because there is a shortage of labor to pick. We are working on plan for this.

By the way, we are working on breakdown of what we accomplished each day and photos at this thread: topic4034.html
It is mostly in Spanish at this point, but we are working on translating all of it. Regardless, there are lots and lots of photos there already, and we will have them posted in the gallery as soon as possible. We have over 7.8 GB of photos at this point, so it will take some time.

admin wrote:By the way, we are working on breakdown of what we accomplished each day and photos at this thread: topic4034.html

On the wall behind you it looks like you have fairly decent maps. I've never found what I would consider a real map in Chile. Who's the publisher and where are they found for sale?

Ready for more translations when you are.

A

Not sure. My wife got them from one of the aid agencies we had a meeting with. Our pilot vince was using a WWII map the U.S. government produced. It was still one of the better maps. I hear that google earth updated their sat photos for southern chile finally.

Update on projects:

We got a quote today for about 48,000 pesos for netting. Looks like we should be able to put together sufficient funds to buy nets for Isla mocha.
We are still working on getting quotes for shipping the fire fighting equipment from the States. I think this one should be in the budget also.
The wine growers. Still working on determining the needs relative to what we can do.

With that, I think everyone will forgive us if we disappear for a couple days. We are still working on projects that are in mix right now, but my wife and I were overdue for a vacation before the earthquake struck. Now we are just fried, and need a couple days to clear our head and regroup.

With that, I think everyone will forgive us if we disappear for a couple days. We are still working on projects that are in mix right now, but my wife and I were overdue for a vacation before the earthquake struck. Now we are just fried, and need a couple days to clear our head and regroup.

About time Charles.

Have a good one.