Dear friends,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! January is nearly here, which means that it’s time for me to make my annual pilgrimage to Mexico, and I’d like to tell you about it.
David and Karen Caldwell are the founding members of Camps International, whose mission is to start camps for kids around the world and train counselors to use these camps to spread the gospel. Their flagship camp Los Domos is located on the shore of a small lake in the highlands of central Mexico, near the city of Morelia. This is a prototype camp where they develop tools, techniques, and strategies for starting new camps. This includes creating the activities and curriculum for the kids to experience, as well as the physical infrastructure required to run a camp.
Kids from many nearby towns will be occupying the camp during the summer months, but I’m visiting during the off season to work behind the scenes on improving the facility. In past years I’ve helped improve their web site, set up computers and networking, and design cabins and other structures. There are some unique challenges at Los Domos because they’re out in the middle of nowhere without electricity, and so everything has to run on solar power. This includes getting wireless internet access from a town eight miles away, and the internet relay tower located midway between the camp and the town is the result of one of my previous visits. Having internet access on site allows them to have a much greater capacity to communicate and conduct business.
One thing I enjoy about working with the Caldwells is the opportunity to invent solutions to challenges that I would never encounter in the US. One disadvantage of building your own electrical and internet infrastructure is the need for maintenance and troubleshooting when things break. This is particularly true for the internet tower: If it shuts down or malfunctions due to a lack of sufficient solar power or battery capacity, there’s no way to know what’s wrong without driving out to check on it. If there were a way to reduce these problems, it would save valuable time and money that could be used for more productive activities.
For the past month I’ve been working on putting together some gadgets that will monitor the status of the tower as well as other electrical equipment around the camp property. This will make it easier to keep track of how the various solar panels and batteries are doing, all from one central computer rather than walking up and down the property to check on things. In the future I also hope to add some automation to their water filtration system, so they don’t have to manually check the water levels in each tank and start the pumps as necessary to refill them from the lake.
I’ll be flying down on January 21st to install this equipment and solve as many other problems as I can before my two weeks are up. I would appreciate your prayers for safety in travel and success in the work I’ll be doing, as well as for the kids that will be participating in the upcoming summer camping season. If you’d like to hear more about what’s going on with me and the Caldwells, just let me know.
I would also like to raise $500 to cover the cost of the equipment I’ve purchased to bring down with me. If you would like to help me give them this belated Christmas gift, I would be happy to accept a contribution of any size. I can accept checks or PayPal, or you can give a tax-deductible donation directly to Camps International through their web site, campsinternational.org.
Thank you for your support!
—Tim