Ruud's Corner

YWAM Jamaica has a second base at Ruud's Corner. It is a 2-1/2 hour drive from here under normal conditions. We drove up before dawn this morning, stopping in Mandeville for some Jamaican breakfast before heading out to the base. This base is located on the north side of the island in the mountains and it is windy quite a bit there. They have a Skystream wind power generator on a 33' pole that is producing electricity for them to help offset their monthly bills. It works very well, but when the installers came down from the States to install the system it initially failed. Then a replacement unit was brought in and installed later and it is the one in service now, working like a champ. Michael spent some extensive time on the phone talking to the manufacturer in Arizona, and we spent time doing some bench tests on the defective unit in the base shop. We are not sure at this point if the unit is usable or not, but if it can be determined that any defective parts could be replaced and the unit made usable, then YWAM would purchase another set of blades and another pole and would then initiate a team perhaps from ITEC to put this second unit into service. We plan to do more testing tomorrow on it to see if it might be repairable. The base up north is located on an old slave plantation, and the main plantation house dates to the 1700's. The location is very quiet except for the constant wind. This base has a secondary school on it which is not in operation over the summer. The drive home took longer due to a very heavy thunderstorm and being behind some large trucks. There is probably not more than 500' of straight road anywhere in Jamaica, if this road is typical That and the constant potholes make for some potential car-sickness, but we did just fine. We stopped off on the way home and sampled some Jamaican jerk pork, chicken and sausage. It was very good and remained in all of our stomachs during all the bouncing around on the rest of the way home. Tomorrow will be our last day here and the youth group from southern Lancaster County is going out to the beach at Negril for the day. Michael and I will stay back and catch up on all we have come here to do so that we are ready to head out on Sunday feeling like we have achieved our purpose. Thanks for your prayers and concerns. God has been with us all the way on this quest here and we are looking forward to providing YWAM with a proposal for the solar here at Montego Bay, once we are home and able to get current pricing. If they raise the necessary funds for the project, then it is very likely we will assemble a team of volunteers to come here and install the system. Today's pictures are from the base above Mandeville. As always you can click on a picture to see it full size. I also am including a map of Jamaica so that you can get a feel for where we have ben while here. Montego Bay is at the top left of the island and Mandeville is below it toward the southern coast. The island is 60 miles wide. Why should it take 2-1/2 to 4 hours to drive across it???

Again, the jerk food was very good.