I felt this post needed its own space, having reported on the visit to Ana Beiba yesterday.

Her foundation is groaning under the weight of numbers of abandoned old people. There is provision to extend her existing houses now, but only by one storey. The ‘babies’ are packed in – happily, I’d add – to the existing accommodation, but do need more room….

And so, the building on the corner of her road – it’s actually two shops on a large piece of land – are up for sale. November and December are the worst months for the ‘volume’ of elderly people being made homeless: Christmas, New Year expenses – Cali is world famous for its ‘Feria’ – a week long party between Christmas and New Year, and old people get ‘jettisoned’ to make more money available for families for the 8 days of festivity. The shops actually sell, among a limited number of other things, reconditioned toilets (!!). The price is 150,000,000 pesos (£36,000): it’s huge, but will need a large amount of work/expenditure to make it live-able.

I’d dearly love to get a volunteer team of builders, carpenters, decorators, electricians, plumbers, etc., to come over and ‘blitz-build’ the house: for skilled people, it probably could be done in less than a couple of weeks, and those coming would also have, of course, the opportunity of living under the spiritual open heaven that is Cali: pry for the sick, preach, see healings and miracles a plenty.

And, of course, to raise the money to buy it: the owners are wanting to sell rapidly (it’s been up for sale for some time). It’s currently rat-infested as I said in the previous blog, and a health threat to the old folk, until it is remodernised. And, being next door, it can be internally connected by knocking down walls. It’s perfect….

If you can help…funding, practical… please let me know. If you could come here for a couple of weeks if you’re a skilled worker (my woodwork certainly doesn’t come in that category!), then can you let me know, please? It IS desperate!