Hello to all visiting this site.   I hope you are having or had a nice Thanksgiving this year. Things are going great with us, and Sonrisa and Kelley are headed up to Massachusetts the 3rd of December. I will stay here and run the Vacation School. Six weeks of classes in English, Mechanics, Ceramics, Music, Computers, Carpentry, Sewing. The Library will have activities and the Land Cruiser Ambulance is working well.

   Since the last post we have been very busy and I will write about what we were able to do very soon.

    For now , I just want to thank everyone that had the smallest part to play in this dream come true. The center is functioning, helping people and teaching people too.  This Thanksgiving, I am most thankful to everyone that helped build this dream, Thank you and have a great Thanksgiving Celebration.       I´ll write more in the next few days. Eddie

ch/April Report

                                       March and April 2008 was consumed by shipment #10. Working with the Catholic Church here in Guaimaca we loaded another container. When I got the charity rate for last year’s container, I really got two, the second had to be used before March 8^th   2008. So idea was that the Catholic Church from Fall River, Ma. and another guy from Rhode Island would send all of their donations up to me in West Stockbridge, I would load it and get to fill any nooks and crannies with some of the donations I couldn’t fit last year.  It didn’t work out the way we thought, they only filled half the container and I had to fill the other half. Filling the other half was no problem for me, dental chairs, doors, compressors, exam tables and plenty of paper. The problem is paying for half of a container.

                                        Thank you to all who donated on this trip back, but I had to use the money to ship this container and most of what we brought down goes to others. The dental chairs and exam tables will go to small health centers in the area. The paper will be divided up between the schools in Guaimaca. We got another oxygen machine which went to work right away.  So, all in all, it was a great shipment and many here in Guaimaca and other areas will benefit from it.

                                           Another major event in March was that our good friend and collaborator here in Guaimaca moved back to his home town. Edmundo Mendez Sanchez first came to help us with our computers. When Armond passed away Edmundo covered the whole place living upstairs for what was going to be three months and turned into three years. Since then he has been a constant help and lets us live in the house across the street that he bought. He accepted a teaching job at the high school in La Esperanza where he will be closer to his dad who is elderly and sick.

                                              He spoke with the director of the hospital in La Esperanza to see if they could use the operating table that we brought down last year. Sure enough they could use it and what ever else we could donate to them. La Esperanza is located in the department(state) of Intibuca probably the poorest part of Honduras on the border with El Salvador. They will be here this coming week with a truck to take some of the things we brought down on this trip too.

                                              While I was home I spoke with people about donating to the project. Now that the building has the roof and floor, we really just need money to pay teachers. $100 will buy a lot of music classes. $100 will buy a lot of computer classes. $100 will buy a lot of sewing classes. $100 will buy a lot of ceramic classes. $100 will also cover the cost of a trip to the hospital in Tegucigalpa. Most organizations working here charge for their services but we try to help the poorest without requiring money. Of course if someone has the ability we ask for help. As for all the donations that we are donating now we don’t require payment. People feel that I am wrong to not charge but I think I’m right.

                                               For example, When Edmundo comes down next week with the director of the hospital, I could say that I want them to pay. But what ever money he pays me, means there is less money to buy medicine for the poor that come to the hospital for help. We donated a lot of paper this week to the schools in our area, especially the pink paper to be used for Mother’s Day celebrations, and I didn’t ask for money in return. I could have, but that would mean less money for something else that the school needed. The oxygen machine that we donated to the health center will help many, but if I charge the health center it means less money for them to buy medicine. What do you think? We spent just over three thousand dollars for the container and we are able to donate over $5000 of paper to the schools, plus six dental chairs with x-ray machines and stools, two really nice exam tables, wheel chairs, bikes and other great things. I think we will be able to donate over $10,000 worth of equipment. Was it worth it? I think so.

                                               Of course the center continued to serve with the library, ambulance and providing space for the grammar school and high school projects. We have limited music and other classes too. I would really like to have more permanent on going classes in music, ceramic, sewing and everything else we have equipment for, but I need your help to do that.

                                                  I am interested in knowing how you feel about this project and how it is functioning. You are all invited to Sonrisa’s 15^th Birthday bash which will be the 28^th of June. I’ll send pictures along for those who can’t make it. We are expecting some visitors from the Universary of Albany this summer, we’ll keep you updated about that.

                                                   Thanks for taking the time to read about our project, please take another minute to write to me telling me what you think and consider donating. You can contact me through this site or e-mail me at eddie@gmail.com.   My phone is working again, 011 504 769 4667 or cel # 011 504 9866 0655. It is much cheaper for me to call you, so if you’d like to talk by phone send me your number with a good time to call and I’ll call you.

                                               Thanks again for your interest in Guaimaca Honduras.

WAMC interview with Eddie

A Green in the US

http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/exchange/174

Eddie O’Toole inspires and amazes with his recycling projects. He tears apart unwanted buildings, collects school and medical equipment headed for landfills, and sends it all down to Guaimaca, Honduras. There, at El Centro Capitación Nueva Esperanza (The New Hope Training Center) he puts it together again. Local youth learn bicycle repair, mechanics, building construction, ceramics, music, reading and CPR/EMT - and turn around to teach others the skills they’ve learned. O’Toole has shipped down used ambulances, school buses, truck containers filled with used equipment, bikes, desks & chairs, computers, microscopes, dental chairs & accessories, ceramic kilns, file cabinets, wheelchairs, walkers, English & Spanish books, prosthetic legs, soccer balls, even riding lawnmowers for those living in rough terrain who need electric wheelchairs (this way they can mow and earn while getting around!). Please go to www.eddieotoole.org and you can hear Eddie speak on a radio spot, find out about the status of the last truck container sent down, see what’s up and running and what needs your help - lots of pics too. You’re invited to visit in Guaimaca and, if you want to teach & share, you’d be most welcome. Although the Center provides much needed teaching and services, part of the place still needs a roof (!). So, if you can, send a US$ check and make it out to UU Church of Pittsfield, Honduran Project in the memo line, and mail it to: UU Church of Pittsfield, 175 Wendell Ave., Pittsfield, MA 01201, US (donation is tax-exempt in US). Eddie, his family, and all of their neighbors in Guaimaca will be thrilled to know you’re concerned and want to be involved!

Top the morning,
We got the container done, thanks for everyone’s help in getting that done. I am off for Honduras on the 26th. You can reach me or leave a message at 413-358-1891 till then. You can reach me by e-mail after that in Honduras.
Thanks again to everyone that made this container happen. Peace, Eddie

Hello to all,
We are loading the container this SATURDAY, MARCH15th. If you have time to help we will be in West Stockbridge Ma. Rt 41, 3 miles south of the Mass pike. If you can’t make it but want to help with a donation, we need the help. In the past it seems that I have always needed $15,000 to get the roof on the building, but, now that the roof is done, what we need is the operating money. We can operate the whole place, including the ambulances if we have $500 a month. I should mention also that we have a $4000 loan outstanding that we took out to finish the building. What you can do to help will be greatly appreciated. My permanent address here in the states is, Eddie O’Toole 180 Elm St. Ste I, PMB125, Pittsfield, MA. 01201. I can be reached at 413 637 2169 or 413 358 1891.
I head back to Honduras 3/26 and will meet the container at the port and then I’ll go on to Guaimaca. In Guaimaca I will work to distribute all the things that we are shipping and work on the ambulances and the building. Please consider a visit to Guaimaca, we are on track to leave Guaimaca in 2009. Thank you again to everyone that has been able to make this all happen.
Sincerely, Your Volunteer, Eddie O’Toole

Our libraby is open most days and mostly used by students doing school assignments. We do pay a neighbor to open and keep track of the library. This is a very important part of our facility and we could use help buying new or used books.

We’d like to hear from anyone who’d like to donate books in Spanish, in good condition, that could be added to a shipment or shipped separately.

A gift of $100 would pay one month’s library expenses and allow for the purchase of new books and periodicals.

Hello to all, I am writing to you from Berkshire County Massachusetts. I spent the first part of February in Guaimaca driving the ambulance and finishing the constuction on the building. We had a really nice celebration to conclude the second vacation school. The floor was done and the pianos and violins sounded great.

The new school year started(Sonrisa is in 9th grade) and the library extention was put to use right away. I did ten trips to the hospital with the LandCruiser Ambulance and had a few uncomfortable clashes with the personnel running that so called hospital. Guaimaca donated the land to a organization from Atlanta, Ga., with the expectation that they were going to build a hospital to help the people of Guaimaca and the surrounding area.

At some point this group from Atlanta, changed their minds and are now charging more than many can afford to pay and they got rid of their ambulances becuase they were loosing too much money. This leaves us as the only ambulance service in town. Many of February’s patients were not able to pay the $50 fuel cost. In the past we were able to cover some of these trips but our funds got to the point that we really had to get money before taking patients to Tegucigalpa.

Now that the major constuction is behind us for the time being, we can operate the center and take people to the hospital regardless of their financial condition for about $500 a month. Could you help us by sponsoring one month? Why am I in Massachusetts? I am loading another container. The Catholic Church in Guaimaca is being run by the diocese of Fall River Ma. and I am helping them fill a container here in West Stockbridge, Ma. next week.

I am going to get a chance to ship some of the things I didn’t get into the container the last time, plus some more computers, dental chairs and what ever else I can find to ship. If you some ideas about things to donate or if you are able to help with some of the costs of this shipment please contact me through this site or call me at 413 637 2169. thank you again for your interest in this great project. eddie

These photos illustrate the January 2008 report. Captions coming soon!

Dear Friends, CONGRATULATIONS!!! We made it! We’ve finished the major portion of our educational center here in Guaimaca. This school vacation we were able to provide classes in the newly completed part of the building. Thank you to everyone that helped make that happen!

January’s report includes a visit to the north coast city of Puerto Cortes and back in Guaimaca a fabulous vacation school, which people were able to take advantage of for less than $4 for three weeks! It’s been a very busy six months or more but we’ve made it to the finish line, or at least the starting line.

Schools start Monday and the Library is in great shape with a new 20X30ft covered patio which will provide the much needed space for the overcrowded library. The main building was raised up in the back to the third floor level and the 60X40ft portion of the building was roofed and the floor installed! The place looks great and now we’ve got over 15 rooms to put all the things that have been donated over the years, to great use!

First of all the library was relatively quiet compared to the busy school year but the ambulance service was very busy. This month we used the Land cruiser ambulance, which we got in 2007, 15 times for the 125 mile round trip to the hospital in the capital city Tegucigalpa. We spent a lot of energy finishing the building construction to have it ready for our second vacation school which was a huge success.

Almost 100 youngsters and a few adults were able to take classes in English, Computers, Guitar, Piano, Violin, and Ceramics. It is great to see the building so alive with students and music. Sunday the 10th we had a graduation ceremony that was great and beautiful with the roof and floor. Kelley and Sonrisa are doing great.

We started out the month by traveling up to the north coast city of San Pedro to pick up a U of Albany student that came down for a visit. Sonrisa was on her “summer” break from school so she had a friend with her and we visited the beach at Puerto Cortes and then visited the Mayan Ruins in Copan in the western part of Honduras and stopped at the beautiful water fall Pulapanzak on the way back to Guaimaca.

We also had another visitor from the southern part of Honduras. Antonio is the son of one of our friends. He has been studying English for the last three years and stayed with us for almost three months to practice his English. We can’t thank him enough for all he did to help us. As he was immersed in English with us he helped weld the roof together, a huge job that we will always appreciate. He also made it possible for us to make that trip to the coast. Thank you, Tony.

This month we also started providing classroom space to a group of fifteen people doing grammar school. They had been studying in the volunteer teacher’s cramped house. This is a great example of how this building can be used. This school year we will also be providing classrooms and other support for a group of 20 or so that will study junior high school using our friend in Tegucigalpa’s radio education program “Maestro en Casa”.

Both of these groups will use our classrooms on weekends and the library and hopefully computers will be available to them. I say hopefully because the computers we used for the vacation schools are slated to be donated to other schools this new school year. Last year( 2007 yearly report will be out soon) we were able to outfit one school with ten computers and a local high school received six of the computers Berkshire Hills School District gave us to help here in Guaimaca.

Now this month we will be able to help at least three more schools and we donated one to the police department. The dental cleaning project is moving along. People are very excited about it. Zoila is training two new young women as she is cleaning teeth. We still have crutches and walkers that we donate and loan out and loaned wheel chairs that trickle back as the people recuperate. We finally gave Dinora the electric wheel chair donated by the Gormalley’s of Pittsfield.

We finished the extension on her house that will be in the 2007 report too. We have been giving the local children plenty of play time with the trampoline, skates, bikes and balls donated by Hot Shots of Long Island. The town started to build a park just up the street from us, so we don’t feel the need to build a basketball court at our place anymore. The two NYC style hoops that I’ve been holding on to, I donated to the park. Thanks again to all that made this all possible and to Shane Nolan that came down to visit and brought connectors for the local water system, an air brush and to Shane’s mom who sent down an automatic welding helmet which will be great to teach welding skills.

Now for the BIG NEWS; Dr. Bushnell, who had given me the dental chairs that we were able to donate to Guaimaca and another local town, connected me with a dental school in Conn. that has donated 14 dental chairs. These are really needed throughout our area. Also the Catholic Church here in Guaimaca is being managed by the Catholic Church of Fall River Ma., who have boxes to ship also.

When I got the special rate from The Great White Fleet, that ship bananas from Honduras, they gave me two containers to be used before March 8th. I need help to come up and get these dental chairs. Fall River is going to share the costs for the shipping. I still have some things that didn’t get into the last container, but I could really use more wheel chairs and computers. Can you help me, AGAIN!!! I will be back in the Ma. Area
soon. If you can help contact me through this web site or call 1-413-6372169.

Hope to see you soon, Eddie