Global Village Update

Famed French mountaineer Maurice Herzog, who was the first to climb any of the 8,000 meter Himalayan mountains—Annapurna in 1950—reportedly the most difficult of the world’s high  mountains, died this week at the age of 93. Herzog wrote in his book about this epic accomplishment. “In overstepping our limitations, in touching the extreme boundaries of man’s world we come to know something of its true splendor.” Is that not also true when we overstep our limitations to help someone in dire need?  As we step beyond our limitations we come to know something of the true nature of God.  Being part of the Global Village experience offers us ways to discover our true selves and to be in meaningful relationship with others.

On Sunday December 9 and Saturday December 14^th students from Warren Wilson College and other volunteers continued to build the necessary infrastructure in the village. 26 bags of cement were mixed by hand and placed to make the foundation and floor for the composting latrine—that is over 2,000 pounds of cement mixed with hoes in wheel barrows. Thank you Warren Wilson students.

Not shying away from more hard work the WWC crew started digging the post holes for the kitchen structure and finished the digging on the 14^th.  But that is not all. The students also complete a bench for the Haitian Yard Garden and built the outside frame for the village granary—a granary is called a “colombier” in Haiti. In rural areas the granary is built off the ground and is used to store crops away from rodents.  In the Global Village the granary will serve the kitchen as a storage place for food and cooking/serving supplies.

January 12^th; February 3^rd and 24^th; March 30^th; and April 20^th have been scheduled as village work days. If you are interested in joining one of these work days or scheduling a separate work day with your group at the Village contact Dave Cohn at Camp Grier dave@campgrier.org.

Along with working on the infrastructure work continues on developing the curriculum that will engage our minds and hearts in understanding the lives and living conditions in developing countries while at the village.

Useful Technology Workshops - a series of workshops are being planned for this spring at the Global Village. Critical areas to be addressed will be:  clean water—bio-sand filter construction, cooking—improved charcoal and wood burning stoves; and pumping water with water ram pumps. These workshops will be hands-on and be held on weekends. Stay tuned.

If you have a mission trip planned for 2013 consider scheduling dates for your team to experience the learning, the building of relationships and the teamwork that the Global Village offers.  Lives will be changed as the Global Village experience makes a palpable difference for those who take part.

An Opportunity to Donate to the Global Village Start-up:  The following items are needed:

·   Used hand tools—hammers, saws, shovels, hoes and wheel barrows

·   Large durable pots (1-3 gallon) and metal pie tins for tableware (Needed for the village kitchen)

·   Money (always in short supply)—donations for village construction and curriculum development will be greatly appreciated.

Pease consider giving a gift to Camp Grier Global Village in honor of friends this Christmas.