La Maison Blanche: A Final Look After 21 Months and $62,000

The Final Foyer House Video

And here you have it--the final (anticipated) post on this blog.  Nearly two years in fundraising and construction and even longer in planning, our work (me, Madlen, Dean, Papa Bila and his construction staff, and the close to 200 of you reading this who have contributed amounts large and small) have done it.  We've taken a dilapidated two bedroom/one (functioning) toilet stall house for 75 abandoned kids in the DR Congo and turned it into a light, airy, sanitary, more comfortable and spacious four bedroom/eight (functioning, dammit!) toilet stall home.

I had grand plans of spending hours splicing together old video clips of the "before" and Dean's project-end footage. But ya know--if you're reading this, you know what it looked like before and have read the accounts of the day-to-day difficulties and discomforts these kids have faced.

Life is still hard for them (well, and for all of us, at some level).  But your generosity and trust have provided greater comfort and safety, helped sustain dozens of families in a part of the world where employment is difficult to come by, sent a message of care and human decency around the world, and--I hope--provided you the joy of knowing that you were part of helping some young people in need.

Thank you to everyone. The proverbial drop in the bucket and all.,.but we've made a significant difference here, one more stark than even Dean's concise and loving video can capture.

Give yourself a slap of five.  And remember:

1. "Never for money; always for love."
2. And fuck fascism.

The Final Foyer House Video

Long Overdue Update--Exciting Video Footage

As anticipated, we've been a little quiet over the (Western Hemisphere) summer.  Madlen had to spend a few months in Europe attending to personal issues.  The work that could continue during her absence did continue. But mostly, we were in a holding pattern awaiting her return.

The latest video update, created by master cinematographer Dean Lindstrom, gives a clear insight into what is happening and what still, in an ideal world, might happen next. Dean created four brief clips that I compiled into 6:45 of fun.  It's not meant as an overview of the whole two-year-long project, but it does give those of you who have invested thought, emotion, or money into this project a nice view of the current situation on the ground.

In overall summary, we have raised essentially the full $62,000 needed to accomplished what we'd dream of accomplishing, plus a bit more. A reminder of what your compassion and cash have accomplished:

• Two brand new, clean, bright, airy bedrooms with toilets and showers, which allowed the ~80 children at Foyer House to sleep in four rooms instead of two.
• The paving of a dirt walkway that had been responsible for infesting the bare feet of the kids with truly horrid mango worms.
• The creation of an expansive patio area in front of the building (which plays home to Kimbondo's first cement ping pong table!).
• The destruction of arguably Sub-Sahara Africa's most odiferous and least functional communal bathroom and its replacement with clean, bright, sanitary toilets and showers.
• The major overhaul of the two aging bedrooms including the construction of lofts in each room. (Note: the second bedroom should be completed by the end of August.)
• A complete renovation of the hallways and the common area--light, bright, clean, lovely.
• With special help from our friends at Cinnamon Path Productions and Theater, the kids and staff now have a brand new industrial strength washing machine and are no longer washing 80 sets of clothes by hand.  (The washing machine is housed in a purpose-built additional room.)

I regret that I'm not able to see it in person, having moved on to Bolivia.  But Dean's video updates and the regular slew of photos that Madlen send makes the difference clear.  I'm proud of them, proud of the workers, proud of myself, and proud of all of you for transforming the living experience of dozens of lives--a number that will surely grow into the hundreds as the years go past.

At this point, I feel like I've asked for a lot from others and am willing and able to fund the remaining touches (highlighted in the video) myself.  That said, if anyone out there has wanted to donate and not done so or feels compelled to contribute a bit more, Lantern Projects can still accept your tax deductible donations and get that cash to Kinshasa.

A final update should come in the next couple of months when the work is 100% completed.

Donate to Project #349

You rule, kids.

May 26: Funding Update

Man, we are getting close. We're not there. But we're close.  And we're going to make it.  But to make it, we still need folks to 

DONATE HERE

So, a quick look at the money situation...Phase I last year (a new building with two large bedrooms) was completed at a cost of $28,000.  Phase II-A this year (ripping apart the old bathroom and making it good) carried a price tag of a little less than $17,000, and that work is completed.  Our final renovations at Kimbondo Orphanage will consist of a major overhaul of the two older bedrooms (with lofts, big windows, and other upgrades) *and* purchasing an industrial strength washing machine was estimated to be completable for $15,000.  (One of the bedrooms has already been finished.) Thus, the entire eighteen month project, if completed, will cost about $60,000.

In short, we're 97% funded.  Another +/- $1,500 will bring this baby home and allow us to do all of the work that in our most crazily optimistic minutes we thought that we maybe could.

The most exciting recent news is that we have received the money needed to purchase an industrial strength washing machine for Foyer House.  Up until this point, the residents and staff have washed 75 sets of clothes per day by hand.  Earlier this year, Madlen elected to use some left over cement to add a small room to the back of the main building in hopes that she might someday find the resources to purchase and install a washing machine.

Enter Max Langert and Cinnamon Path Production Theater.  On March 22nd, Max wrote to me:  

Hey! I've got a kind of crazy, spur-of-the-moment idea I wanted to throw at you (and it totally may not come together, so there's that caveat).

I've put on a couple of variety benefit shows the last couple of years, getting performers together and donating some money to different causes (Autism Society, SAFE). I just basically got offered a free theater space in May to do another one if I can get something together.

And I quickly thought... hmm, if I can get some music and comedy acts together in time, maybe we could do a show for the Kimbondo Orphanage.

Would you have any objection to that? So it would be a modest thing with some mostly comedy stuff, but proceeds would go to the project. Set off any red flags? Is mid-May too late for the latest round of funding?

A bit of a whimsical thought, but the offer from the theater is suddenly on the table, and I like project-managing stuff. (sorta)

Let me know if you have any reaction, negative or positive. No pressure at all.

I did, in  fact have a reaction:  "Oh, hell yeah!  Mos def."

And Max went into hyper mode, lining up a slate of excellent local performers (which he enjoys doing) and firing up the PR machine (which he *hates* doing).  But once the ball got rolling, we had reason to believe that a night of music, theater, and comedy might net us $500 - $1,000 toward purchasing the fifteen hundred dollar machine.

In two direct payments, Max and Cinnamon Path Productions Theater added $1,415 to our account.  Within the next couple of days, we also received two random and unexpected Austin-based online donations amounting to $300, which were almost certainly stemming from the benefit.  Thus, Max's "crazy, spur-of-the-moment" idea on March 22nd has allowed Kimbondo to purchase the washing machine that will make 75 young lives (and the beleaguered staff's "older lives") easier, more comfortable, and more sanitary.  

And we are so much closer to completing the entire project, putting the final touches on what is poignantly known across the Kimbondo Orphanage compounds (which houses some 500 - 700 abandoned kids) as "The White House".

Bravo, Max. Thank you performers.  Thank you friends and anonymous folks who came out to support the kids of Kimbondo.  I can only offer my continued assurance that the money is doing exactly what you are promised that it will do and that Madlen, the contractor Papa Bila, and our other friends on the ground in Kinshasa will continue to monitor the process carefully and make your money count.

Madlen returns to Kinshasa in July. By that point, all work should be completed, save the renovation of the second old bedroom and the purchase and installation of the washing machine.  Because we are so close to the goal, I've given the okay to purchase the supplies for the final touches, so that we can fend off the ever-possible spike in inflation and be ready to have the work 100% completed by August.

I'll close by posting some photos provided by Rene Renteria Photography of the "Washa for Kinshasa" benefit held last Saturday.  I'm sorry that I can't match names with faces, as I was in far off Santa Cruz, Bolivia that night.

Benefit for Kimbondo Orphanage, Saturday, May 19--Austin, Texas

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My good friend Max Langert and Cinnamon Path Productions Theater are staging a benefit to help this project.  Entitled "A Washa for Kinshasa", the proceeds will go toward procuring an industrial strength washing machine. Currently, the battle to wash 80 sets of clothes a day by hand is...well, challenging.

Here are the details:

Saturday, May 19th 8pm – 10pm, $15 donation requested

Ground Floor Theatre

979 Springdale Rd

www.groundfloortheatre.org

(512) 827-9474

Award-winning music, comedy & storytelling: a stellar lineup for a fantastic cause

• Featuring Jomo & The Possum Posse, Her Dinosaur and other special guests, including:
  
  
  Ava Love Hanna
  Christine Hoang (with Leslie Lozano)
  Tristan Mercado
  Carlton Wilcoxson
  Joey Zimmerman
  
  
  Help us pay for a new, industrial-strength washing machine for 75 abandoned children. Currently, the overworked staff oversees the HAND washing of 75 sets of clothes a day.
  
  

May 11 Fundraising Update

Want to help us get over the top so that we can finish that final bedroom?  

Tax Deductible Donations Here 

May 1, 2018: Supporting Labor on May Day

First and foremost, we remain +/- $5,000 short of the total we'll need to have completed *all* dreamed-of renovations to Kimbondo Orphanage in Kinshasa.  Your tax-deductible donations can still be sent to:

For the Kids at Kimbondo

(Please note that in the coming days, we will no longer be a front-page-featured initiative at Lantern Projects.  We will continue to receive donations through this cite, but it would be helpful if you'd type a note indicating that your donation is meant for Kimbondo or "the Congo Toilet Project" or even just mentioning my name.)

One of the great collateral benefits of the construction at Kimbondo Orphanage has been that it has provided almost immeasurably needed work for Congolese people who struggle on a constant basis to feed themselves and their families.  The poverty and lack of opportunity that permeates Kinshasa is at a level rarely surpassed or even matched in the modern world. Reliable estimates suggest that as many 500 to 1,000 people *a day* arrive in Kinshasa, such is the unrest and desperation in much of the country.  Housing, jobs, and school desks exist for few of them and I--even in the comparatively secure and prosperous sectors of Kinshasa in which I lived--have numerous friends who regularly eat once a day and/or have to withdraw their children from schools for lack of funds.  And these are the people who are regularly employed.

The work at Kimbondo Orphanage won't act as more than a stopgap for those whom we employed.  But in Kinshasa, a stopgap is often vital.  Sadly, we know that this project provided the only employment this year for some of the men who worked to build this home for children and suspect that for others, the few hundred dollars earned likely resulted in a child staying in school, or covered a needed medical procedure.  Significantly, this didn't involve handouts; the men worked incredibly hard for their pay.  The "dignity of labor" is not simply a cliche from days gone by.

In a moment, I'll try to give a rough estimate of wages paid and number of workers.  But first a few photographs of Papa Bila (our contractor and the man learning to play ping pong on one of the tables your money built!) and the men he's supervised.  I had hoped to be able to attach names and provide a brief bio for some of these gentlemen, but Madlen is currently away in Europe and I wasn't able to accomplish this.

Madlen estimates that salaries amounted to about a third of the total cost of each of the building projects.  That would mean that about $9,000 made its way into the hands of local workers as we building the second set of bedrooms last year, another $5,000 this year as we renovated the bathrooms and another $2,500 as we gave one of the old bedrooms an overhaul. And if we are able to raise the additional $5,000 we need to complete the work, that would mean another $1,500 - $2,000 buying food and school supplies for area families.  That would mean about $20,000 directly into the local economy (plus the residual employment impact of some $35,000 worth of locally purchased supplies.)

As mentioned, the numbers are hard to pinpoint.  Some men worked for weeks on end, others were simply called in for an afternoon to help with a specific project. But a conservative estimate would say that somewhere in the area of 75 - 100 men earned at least a solid week's pay for their efforts.  And if one person brings, say $100, into a homestead in Kinshasa, it can be safely assumed that it will touch the lives of 6/8/10/20 times as many people, as the extended family system is deeply entrenched in Congo.

Adding to the "dignity" of the situation, Madlen reports that there has been an open air of pride and commitment to a great cause among the men who have worked to build a better life for these kids.  They care; they are proud that their efforts are helping to provide a place for a discarded twelve year old to rest her head.  They have worked strenuously and honorably--despite the challenges most of them face in their own lives--to ensure that an abandoned nine year old no longer has to wait an hour in the morning to use a foul toilet.

Language (and, to a lesser extent, cultural) barriers prevented me from getting to know these men to any meaningful degree. But I admire them greatly and am paying silent homage to them today, on May Day.

April 17: Breaking Walls to Let the Sunshine In

Usual first thing first...we still need +/-$6,000 to complete the Foyer House at Kimbondo Orphanage Renovation.  

                         DONATE HERE

So far:

• New bedrooms built?  Check.
• Bathrooms in new building? Check.
• Paved the parasite-yielded dirt walkway? Check.
• Remodeled the dining room and hallways? Check.
• Constructed a laundry room and a storage room? Check.
• Funded lofts and a major renovation of one of the two old bedrooms?  Check?
• Finished the old bedroom renovation and loft?  Working on it.
• Funding for second bedroom renovation and lofts?  Still not funded.
• Industrial strength washing machine.  Still not funded.

Help us and/or spread the word to others who might help us:

As for the bedroom renovation, Madlen has the funds and is overseeing the following:

• the installation of lofts, since ~20 kids are sharing each room
• new floors and walls
• installing huge air- and light-producing windows.

We'll update photos as the work develops. But I just received this incredibly cool slow-mo assault on the dingy old walls and a photo of the new windows that were just installed.  I don't think it takes a lot of imagination to picture the difference this will make when the work is completed.  And again--we hope to be able to do this with both bedrooms.

And the new windows...feel the light and smell the breeze!