Nonviolent Ways Project
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
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A ferry for Honduras --
commemoration for a lost partner
Last year, Bob Comstock of upstate North Sanford, NY, 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 guides Nonviolent Ways Project affiliate 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 now-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.
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."
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