Shoestrings & Grace
Opportunities
for engagement
Other pages in this site .....
 Year in Review:
1998-99
Acteal
commemoration: images, analysis
Maps of Chiapas
from CIEPAC
Mexican
government expels foreigners
Massacre in
Acteal, Chiapas
1999 journey to
Mexican base communities
1997 support for
human rights efforts in Mexico
Honduras
human-rights journey
Aid project for
Venezuela flood disaster
Radical
Philosopher's 2nd Mexico Trip
Reflections
on Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico
Briefings from
the frontlines of the struggle
About Nonviolent
Ways Project,
Shoestrings & Grace
Strategic Pastoral Action's
Advisory Board
In memory of Pam Comstock
Anna J. Brown
Kairos Community, NYC
New Jersey, US
Bob & Gwyn
Comstock
Shoestrings & Grace
New York, US
Andres Thomas
Conteris
United Methodist Global Ministries
Washington DC
José Fosado
Sergio Méndez Arceo
Comité Pro Derechos
Humanos
Mexico
Tom Hansen
Mexico Solidarity Network
Chicago, US
Lyda Pierce
Comisión Cristiana de Desarrollo
Honduras
Analiese Richard
U.C. Berkeley
California, US
Larry Richard
Abenaki Choctaw Nation
Louisiana, US
Eileen
Robertson-Rehberg, Ph.D.
Hope College
Michigan, US
Dianne Roe
Christian Peacemaker Teams
New York, US
Susana Saravia
Nuevo Amanecer Press
Washington, US
Erin Sheehan
Activist
New York, US
Julie Stewart
Commission on Religion and Race, NCNYC UMC
New York, US
Coordinator
Rev. Wes Rehberg, Ph.D.,
New York, US
|
A ferry for Honduras --
commemoration for a lost partner
Bob
Comstock of upstate North Sanford, NY, now deceased, envisioned a ferry
traveling across an area in central Honduras flooded for a
hydroelectric power dam. The reservoir created by the dam cut off
transportation between rural communities and a convenient route for
marketing local agriculture products, and this disturbed him.
Bob,
who helped guide Shoestrings & Grace's project with
Proyecto Aldea Global in Honduras, set out to build the ferry, drawing on his expertise as a welding
contractor for highway bridge construction and repair. He contacted an
engineer, Jim Dillon of Raquette Lake, NY, for a design, and drew on
other contacts to obtain donated resources.
The
plan grew out of a social-justice mission trip to Honduras in January
1999, coordinated in conjunction with Proyecto Aldea Global (Project
Global Village), which Bob and his formerly deceased wife Pam Comstock
had dedicated themselves to -- building and supplying a health clinic,
repairing roads and homes, constructing a fruit-drying oven, shipping a
schoolbus, clothing and medical supplies. Bob since died of cancer.
Pam
was tragically killed when her pickup truck overturned in upstate New
York during the Spring of 1999 in the midst of the ferry project. In
her honor and memory, the ferry and a sewing project Strategic Pastoral
Action Network, Nonviolent Ways Project's predecessor, helped to launch
in central Mexico, were named for her by people in Honduras and Mexico.
Both are now underway: the ferry now carries vehicles, cargo and people
across the reservoir.
 Using volunteer teams during
most of 1999, Bob, relatives and friends, pulled together 24 emptied
250-gallon propane tanks, I-beams, flooring, and constructed the ferry
on a cement pad next to his workshop in North Sanford. For propulsion,
a hay combine was modified and paddle wheels constructed and geared.
Next,
with arrangements through Proyecto Global, the ferry was disassembled,
packed into two tractor-trailer containers and shipped by sea to
northern Honduras, the containers then driven overland to central
Honduras.
Finally,
a 15-member volunteer crew, including many who had worked on the
original assembly, traveled to Honduras between January 12-26, 2000 to
reassemble the craft in the reservoir's waters. It sailed successfully
in January and was formally named "Miss Pamela."
|
|
