Financial Update:
PayPal balance: $226.07
in hand cash donations: $ 400
checks received: $90
total money donated to date: $716.07
Cash Paid Out:
drill bits: $16.04
gas money: $60
350 ten ft sticks of conduit pipe for prototype: $234
total paid out: $300
cash from self: $234
total paid out of donations: $76
current total amount: $640
I called around to a bunch of electrical supply places today, so far no donations of conduit pipe, but one company seemed sympathetic and gave me a really good price on it at 54c a ft.
To build ten domes we need 3500 ft X .54c= $1890 plus tax
I dont know how much the tax will be exactly, but ballpark we need around $1900
To get this excellent price we need $1350 more dollars right away because it's a bulk deal.
Buying the conduit pipe a little bit at a time is not cost effective at all.
These guys look like they are all ready to start clearing rubble and re-building. Oh, wait, that's an M16, not a shovel.
This is just the money to build the frames for the domes. We will need more money for airfare and ground support but that is not pressing at this point. Also, I am pretty sure I can find 2 or 3 willing crew members who can buy their own airfare. It's pretty cheap and I am also aware we could get a donation of air travel vouchers. If anyone reading this has a lead on vouchers, please email me: info@domesforhaiti.org
To fabricate the covers, we may not need any money, but only if i can find a tent manufacturer or some sort of awning manufacturer in the area that would do the job pro bono
or allow us access to their heat welder machine to weld the vinyl together.
Other options include gluing the pattern together with vinyl glue. We might have no choice but to
go this route, but I will try really hard to find the right machine so we can have solid and durable covers for the domes. Judging by these photos, which I found on the Washington Post's website, which they got from AP Photographer Ramon Espinosa, the standards are not too high that the people receiving these domes will complain that they are not well manufactured enough.
They wont be worried about whether we tested them in our handy rain simulator or back yard wind tunnel first. They wont be refusing to accept the domes because they are culturally foreign or because they wont know how to repair them should one of the tarps tear. I don't suspect the recipients of the domes will disassemble them and try to sell the metal after we leave, so they can live instead in a stick house made out of sheets and sticks. Some of the things people are saying to me are just a wee bit outlandish. I don't think people really get that the emergency situation is not over in Haiti. There is a second wave of disaster on it's way with all the raw sewage floating around and kids playing barefoot in it.
Only 60% of the population affected by the earthquake have received tarps to date. Those who haven't are living under sheets and scraps of metal. Have you ever been woken up in the middle of the night with a deluge of cold water slamming you in the face? I want to try to help at least 50 kids have a dry and secure place to sleep. Surely some of you who are reading this would like to do something to help as well? How much do you spend a day on consumables? Can you consume just a little less for a week and send the surplus cash to Haiti in the form of a geodesic dome? How much more pleasure will you get following this story as it unfolds knowing that you did something solid to help? I know, you are all "Haiti-ed" out, you gave already, you're done, please pass the salt.
Have you ever had to walk barefoot in the mud to go take a crap in a hole in the ground?
Trust me, if you have a hole, you'd be grateful.
The rains are falling in Brooklyn.
It's also raining in Haiti.
Read this report from the NY Times
This is a good website for current conditions in Haiti : Operation Biosurveillance
To build ten domes we need 3500 ft X .54c= $1890 plus tax
I dont know how much the tax will be exactly, but ballpark we need around $1900
To get this excellent price we need $1350 more dollars right away because it's a bulk deal.
Buying the conduit pipe a little bit at a time is not cost effective at all.
These guys look like they are all ready to start clearing rubble and re-building. Oh, wait, that's an M16, not a shovel.
This is just the money to build the frames for the domes. We will need more money for airfare and ground support but that is not pressing at this point. Also, I am pretty sure I can find 2 or 3 willing crew members who can buy their own airfare. It's pretty cheap and I am also aware we could get a donation of air travel vouchers. If anyone reading this has a lead on vouchers, please email me: info@domesforhaiti.org
To fabricate the covers, we may not need any money, but only if i can find a tent manufacturer or some sort of awning manufacturer in the area that would do the job pro bono
or allow us access to their heat welder machine to weld the vinyl together.
Other options include gluing the pattern together with vinyl glue. We might have no choice but to
go this route, but I will try really hard to find the right machine so we can have solid and durable covers for the domes. Judging by these photos, which I found on the Washington Post's website, which they got from AP Photographer Ramon Espinosa, the standards are not too high that the people receiving these domes will complain that they are not well manufactured enough.
They wont be worried about whether we tested them in our handy rain simulator or back yard wind tunnel first. They wont be refusing to accept the domes because they are culturally foreign or because they wont know how to repair them should one of the tarps tear. I don't suspect the recipients of the domes will disassemble them and try to sell the metal after we leave, so they can live instead in a stick house made out of sheets and sticks. Some of the things people are saying to me are just a wee bit outlandish. I don't think people really get that the emergency situation is not over in Haiti. There is a second wave of disaster on it's way with all the raw sewage floating around and kids playing barefoot in it.
Only 60% of the population affected by the earthquake have received tarps to date. Those who haven't are living under sheets and scraps of metal. Have you ever been woken up in the middle of the night with a deluge of cold water slamming you in the face? I want to try to help at least 50 kids have a dry and secure place to sleep. Surely some of you who are reading this would like to do something to help as well? How much do you spend a day on consumables? Can you consume just a little less for a week and send the surplus cash to Haiti in the form of a geodesic dome? How much more pleasure will you get following this story as it unfolds knowing that you did something solid to help? I know, you are all "Haiti-ed" out, you gave already, you're done, please pass the salt.
Have you ever had to walk barefoot in the mud to go take a crap in a hole in the ground?
Trust me, if you have a hole, you'd be grateful.
The rains are falling in Brooklyn.
It's also raining in Haiti.
Read this report from the NY Times
This is a good website for current conditions in Haiti : Operation Biosurveillance
I'm really worried about the floors of the domes being flooded with raw sewage.
I am going to bring some shovels to Haiti. In the NY Times report it said people were digging with sticks. I think I can make a floor for the domes that seals up on the inside, so at least if the trenches we dig around the domes are not sufficient to keep out the water, it will stay under the vinyl. I can seal them up with velcro or clamps. If anyone knows any great clamping systems that doesn't puncture the tarps, please email with suggestions.
info@domesforhaiti.org
email me and let me know you are reading this blog.
AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa
DONATE NOW!
what are you waiting for?
No comments:
Post a Comment