TAIL of the Tale, MIRACLES behold.

I returned to the Electricity Company to see Mr Joseph.

I wasn’t getting anywhere with the Borough Council.....plenty of promises for clearing the road, but unfortunately ‘talk is cheap’ and doesn’t get much done. I had explained to them that the electrical company would put in telegraph poles bringing electricity to the Rescue Project but that they had asked that the Borough Council clear the ‘track’ first, allowing their machines to do their job.

I explained to Mr Joseph that I had asked the ‘works’ department to ‘level’ the track but that nothing had been done nor possibly would be. It just so happened that the guy responsible for the team who was in the city putting in telegraph poles had just dropped in to the Electricity Company’s Office.

Mr Joseph spoke briefly with him and they decided to go and have a look at the service..... after another brief discussion it was decided that the ground was hard enough to support their lorry/crane and that the only time the team had free was the next day! I couldn’t believe it, I had asked for a basic two cable format taking electricity to the Rescue Project, Mr Joseph said there was no point in doing the job by half measures, best the full works, 4 cables!

The next day the team that had come to replace telegraph poles around the city were digging, placing and installing five new telegraph poles and all the necessary cables and fixtures to take electricity to the front door of the Rescue Project, on THEIR DAY OFF.

GOD is good, ALWAYS. 

First Telegraph Pole

Along the 'track' to the RESCUE PROJECT

FIVE telegraph poles later, electricity to the Rescue Project

A SHAGGY DOG Story

This week, I went to the electric board to ask them to install electric at the Rescue Project. I was asked to submit documents which I did, but was told that the main problem was that there was no road going to the Project just a ‘track’.

‘Ok’ I thought, I’ll go to the people in the borough council responsible for opening roads. Unfortunately the head boss wasn’t there so I was directed to the roads engineer, who basically said it wasn’t his responsibility and the guy who wasn’t there was the guy to sort it out.

I passed by with my brother-in-law Tinho who said the problem wasn’t a road but the fact that there wasn’t a road, road.........better understood as the road ended 50m away and they won’t put telegraph poles in the middle of the jungle so to speak. I had to get the track recognised as a road.

So off I went to the Borough Council to ask what their slant was! Yes, I had to get the track recognised as a road, when it is declared a road then the electric company have to bring an electric supply to the houses on it to fulfil the ‘rights’ of the citizens. But to get a track recognised as a road I have to get it passed by the borough council by a vote of its members and only its members can purpose what to put forward to be voted on!

Now I needed a council member........I know one (the one that put Rebeca’s name forward to be recognised as an exceptional woman in the city for 2012 in the area of education). I rang him.......no one answer.....(they rarely answer). I remembered that he or one of his employees would be picking up his son from school......off to school then!

I met with the borough council member who said he would put forward the request and asked me to write a document to that effect. I don’t write documents in Portuguese......but Rebeca was at the Living Word School so I grabbed her to write the document for me. When I went to write that I wanted that the track which was a natural extension of the road Lionel Alves recognised, Rebeca stopped and turned to me and said “I’m sure it isn’t an extension, I saw on a land document somewhere that it has a name”. “Where is the document I asked”? We looked and looked and then we came up with the idea of going to the land records office to see if we could get the document in question.

One of the parents of a student at the school works in the records office and was not only able to put her hand on the file but gave it to us to make a copy and return to her. On the document it said that the land which the Rescue Project is on borders with the Road known as Lionel Alves. This was valuable information.....the track was a road...it doesn’t matter what state it is in, the track is a road!

I was delighted. I marked a meeting with the head of the Electric company in Maues. They had sent me away at the start of the day......not wanting to put in electricity to the area.....and technically put in as many barriers as possible. Now after a day of running about and tremendous favour everywhere I turned I was sat in the main office with the documents in hand proving that my track was a road. I also brought my laptop and some valuable photos of the progression of the work so far. The head of the electric company was so shocked and impressed that he accepted an invitation to take him personally to see the Rescue Project the next day.

I took Mr Joseph the Head of the electric company to see the Rescue Project, he was deeply moved by the work and reassured me that  he would do all he can to get electricity into the Project as soon as possible. So now we have been promised that the electricity company will put in the posts and cables and transformers needed. Let’s not lose hope, let’s not get complacent but keep on keeping on!

Before the electrical company will put in the posts I have now to get the road company to improve the road to permit the electricity lorry to get in and out........ and the story continues.