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grancrete
April 2008 
The basic facts of poverty and what we can do
Posted on May 29th, 2007
by 
Jeff
Jeff
I have been a Zaadz member for about a year. Quite frankly I see plenty of people talking about "Changing the World" but I 'm not reading any blogs about people actually doing it. It was in the early 90's when I got the "call" / inspiration / sensitivity to combat poverty. 17 years later I too can not really say I've done much to reduce it.
I have a fish tank with a small collection of tropical fish. Some people have said over the years, "why do you keep them locked up in a tiny (40 gal is not tiny) fish tank when you should let them go free. I never really had a good answer till one day I recalled that many of my fish were born in the tank and that 40 gal tank is the only world they have ever known. They are safe from predators and are quite happy, or at least it seems so to me.
As much as a 40 gallon tank is the only world many of my fish have known, my entire life has been that of challenge and struggle. Old cars and tiny balance bank accounts are all I have ever known. Old cars and small bank balances do not make me an unhappy person. I enjoy every day this life of ours has to offer. I can't fly to Europe for a grand vacation, but that does not mean I'm unhappy. If I could go anywhere, I would travel to Auschwitz and photograph every square inch of it. It's hard for me to understand the level of hatred the Nazis had for Jews, Gypsies, Catholics and all the others who were put to death just for being different. My mother's side of the family is Polish and I would love to visit Poland someday and see if any of my ancestors could be found. The chances are slim to none, since the Nazis had a bad habit of blowing up City Halls where all the vital records were kept. I'm sure many of my relatives died at Auschwitz. They were not Jewish, but all you had to do to join the condemned, was to offer help and shelter.
Enough about me...
Over the weekend, I had time to reflect once again on the simple methods Robert Schuller used to build the Crystal Cathedral. I live close to it and I visit the grounds from time-to-time, but I have never been there for a church service. The place is very inspiring and beautiful. The cathedral was literally built by selling every piece to the congregation and supporters. A window costs $2500.00, a chair, $500.00, a single brick, $1.00 and so forth. People could contribute to the construction, based on their financial abilities and a one dollar donation was just as needed as a $10,000 donation. The Tower of Hope was built in the early 60's for one million dollars. Robert needed a single one million dollar donation, or he needed 1000 people with $1,000.00 each or five thousand people with $200.00 or 10,000 people with $100.00. The math was simple. I like his math.
I visited Honduras in the early 90's. I had it in mind to become a medical missionary. It never happened. Every agency I contacted (this was before the Internet was born) was happy to have me, if I could find financial sponsors. I thought the job of a missionary agency was to send their missionaries abroad and let them work, while the agency supports them. How wrong I was! They devoted full time efforts to fund raising to pay for the fat salaries and high overhead of the operation. If ten cents of every dollar donated actually went to the Mission Statement, that was a small miracle.
I came back from Honduras with a new respect for indoor plumbing and running water. In Honduras, if you have this, you are considered one of the wealthy. One home I had dinner at was about 12 feet by 20 feet. One room. There was no refrigerator, no running water, only a 55 gal drum of water I would never consider drinking. The restroom was out back, a hole in the ground with an elevated seat available. This family actually had electricity, but no TV, no radio, just a single bare bulb hanging from the center of the fiberglass roof. There were no glass windows, just window frames, covered by wooden shutters. We ate rice and beans and tortillas and some kind of cheese that would not spoil from being stored at room temp. The water that filled my glass was cloudy and had a dead ant floating in it. I hoped no one would notice I was not thirsty. Everyone had a job at a local clothing factory, but as you may know from my other blogs, I have a serious problem with exploitation of the laborer by USA based companies. These people were paid just enough to stay poor and just above the level of starving. They were never going to escape this vicious cycle of poverty.
Things don't have to be this way.
Did you know that it's possible to build a small home (think studio apartment) for just a few hundred dollars?
What this means is this, $2,000 divides into...
I have no financial interest in Grancrete. I wish I did! Here is there web site
http://www.grancrete.net/index.cfm
I have a fish tank with a small collection of tropical fish. Some people have said over the years, "why do you keep them locked up in a tiny (40 gal is not tiny) fish tank when you should let them go free. I never really had a good answer till one day I recalled that many of my fish were born in the tank and that 40 gal tank is the only world they have ever known. They are safe from predators and are quite happy, or at least it seems so to me.
As much as a 40 gallon tank is the only world many of my fish have known, my entire life has been that of challenge and struggle. Old cars and tiny balance bank accounts are all I have ever known. Old cars and small bank balances do not make me an unhappy person. I enjoy every day this life of ours has to offer. I can't fly to Europe for a grand vacation, but that does not mean I'm unhappy. If I could go anywhere, I would travel to Auschwitz and photograph every square inch of it. It's hard for me to understand the level of hatred the Nazis had for Jews, Gypsies, Catholics and all the others who were put to death just for being different. My mother's side of the family is Polish and I would love to visit Poland someday and see if any of my ancestors could be found. The chances are slim to none, since the Nazis had a bad habit of blowing up City Halls where all the vital records were kept. I'm sure many of my relatives died at Auschwitz. They were not Jewish, but all you had to do to join the condemned, was to offer help and shelter.
Enough about me...
Over the weekend, I had time to reflect once again on the simple methods Robert Schuller used to build the Crystal Cathedral. I live close to it and I visit the grounds from time-to-time, but I have never been there for a church service. The place is very inspiring and beautiful. The cathedral was literally built by selling every piece to the congregation and supporters. A window costs $2500.00, a chair, $500.00, a single brick, $1.00 and so forth. People could contribute to the construction, based on their financial abilities and a one dollar donation was just as needed as a $10,000 donation. The Tower of Hope was built in the early 60's for one million dollars. Robert needed a single one million dollar donation, or he needed 1000 people with $1,000.00 each or five thousand people with $200.00 or 10,000 people with $100.00. The math was simple. I like his math.
I visited Honduras in the early 90's. I had it in mind to become a medical missionary. It never happened. Every agency I contacted (this was before the Internet was born) was happy to have me, if I could find financial sponsors. I thought the job of a missionary agency was to send their missionaries abroad and let them work, while the agency supports them. How wrong I was! They devoted full time efforts to fund raising to pay for the fat salaries and high overhead of the operation. If ten cents of every dollar donated actually went to the Mission Statement, that was a small miracle.
I came back from Honduras with a new respect for indoor plumbing and running water. In Honduras, if you have this, you are considered one of the wealthy. One home I had dinner at was about 12 feet by 20 feet. One room. There was no refrigerator, no running water, only a 55 gal drum of water I would never consider drinking. The restroom was out back, a hole in the ground with an elevated seat available. This family actually had electricity, but no TV, no radio, just a single bare bulb hanging from the center of the fiberglass roof. There were no glass windows, just window frames, covered by wooden shutters. We ate rice and beans and tortillas and some kind of cheese that would not spoil from being stored at room temp. The water that filled my glass was cloudy and had a dead ant floating in it. I hoped no one would notice I was not thirsty. Everyone had a job at a local clothing factory, but as you may know from my other blogs, I have a serious problem with exploitation of the laborer by USA based companies. These people were paid just enough to stay poor and just above the level of starving. They were never going to escape this vicious cycle of poverty.
Things don't have to be this way.
Did you know that it's possible to build a small home (think studio apartment) for just a few hundred dollars?
- Start by framing and pouring a concrete foundation
- Come back a few days later and construct the house out of foam core board. Cut out the window and door frames with an Exato knife. Run electric wires along the surface and connect them to outlets. Do the same for the water pipes.
- After framing the house out of the foam core board, spray every surface with Grancrete. About five hours later the Grancrete will be as hard as concrete, yet flexible, so it won't crack if high winds come to visit.
- A small group of people can build a very nice home in one day for a few hundred dollars.
What this means is this, $2,000 divides into...
- 20 people at $100 each
- 40 people at $50.00 each
- 60 people at $33.33 each
- 90 people at $22.00 each
- 180 people at $11.11 each
I have no financial interest in Grancrete. I wish I did! Here is there web site
http://www.grancrete.net/index.cfm
Access: Public
This is an amazing post. Not only are you explaining what people need, but you're making it clear for them to understand how to get it done, and looking at these numbers I can't imagine why even a small group of people can't make a commitment to build at least one house.
I'm going to look around Zaadz and see if there are any Zaadsters who are interested in actually acting on the words: Love. Compassion. Sharing. I wonder sometimes why people prefer to talk as opposed to acting on their “faith”.
I would be more than willing to be one of 20 people or one of 10. How about 10 people who have money they don't need to spend at Starbucks? Wouldn't that be nice. Hmm…60 people giving up one weeks of Starbucks….now there's a thought.
You're a good man…
J