Olarash Construction
It has been a few weeks since I have written, but I'm in a rural village and don't have an exactly reliable internet source unless I go into Arusha, which is an hour away. We have been working very hard and have gotten a lot accomplished.
Four of the six existing classrooms are mudded, painted, and have new cement floors. The other two will be done soon. Maiyan and I have drawn all of the teacher aides on the wall and will paint them next week. It took us 3 whole days to draw out everything on the walls. I tell you drawing 5 by 4 ft freehand map of East Africa is not an easy task. After doing that and 2 maps of Tanzania, and a map of the Monduli area, I decided to go and buy world maps for Standard 6 and 7 classrooms rather than trying to draw them. Its been really neat, because I am learning all of my science and math in Kiswahili. My favorite is that I can now explain the carbon cycle in swahili. The rooms are a dark blue on the bottom half and a cream on top, with an orangy-red color bordering the chalkboards and windows. We aren't nearly done, but they are already in a thousand times better condition and bright and cheerful. We have all of next week to get the teacher aides painted, then 5 days of teacher workshops, then the school resumes classes. I feel like we just got here are we are already almost done with the construction side of the project.
The painter, Nasi, is probably one of the sweetest people I've met. She speaks almost no English, and my swahili is still a bit sketchy, so it has been an adventure in itself communicating with each other. I told her that we were going to help each other with the other language. So she shows me something or points to something and tells me how to say it in Swahili and then I tell her in English. She has already learned so much English and she picks up on it a lot faster than I can pick up Swahili. It is a lot of fun though, and we have out own rhythm going on.
The construction of the classroom will be done next week. It was projected to take 6 weeks, but it will be done in 4. It is the first construction project I have ever seen anywhere in the world that has finished on time, let alone early. It will also save us some money, because we won't have to pay salaries and lunches for the 6 people in the construction staff for an additional 2 weeks. The reason it has gone so fast is because of the dedication of the workers and the community. There is always a lot of people there to help out whenever it is needed. They work harder than anyone I have ever seen. Jan says that if we weren't there working along side them everyday that it would take at least twice as long. The roof is going up tomorrow and then we will finish cementing the walls and painting next week.
The building process is insane. It is all done with hand tools. For example building the a-frames for the roof is all cut and nailed by hand. This is incredible to me, because they have to be exactly even, otherwise the integrity of the entire roof is shot. They measure and cut all the angles by hand, and the use 6in nails and hammer them in by hand. I've also seen when one of our shovel broken, Masai from Olarash bust out a hand made shovel. The take a piece of wood and shave it down, then nail in a shovel head. They always have a way to fix every problem with ease. I'm learning so much about building, and sometimes I just sit and watch them work for a while, because the methods they use are so intriguing.
Yesterday we went to town and did a bunch of shopping for the project. We got 16 bundles of colored string so the we can make big Xs across the ceiling and then use clothes pins to hang up pictures and students work. It is an easy way to display what the kids have done and brighten up the classroom. We also got some cleaning supplies, which is something I didn't really think about before I was here. But I think it is a good thing to give the school, so that they can keep the classroom and bathrooms clean and help with teaching better hygiene. We got a bunch of other school supplies and things like that, as well.
It is such a pleasure to work with all of the teachers and the headmaster Mr. Kadeghe. They are all so nice, and happy that we are at the school. We haven't been at the school for the last 2 days, because we were in Arusha taking care of other things. Anyway, on our way back up tonight I got a call from Mr. Kadeghe asking if we were going to be at the school tomorrow. I told him that we would be there in the morning (In TZ they have a 5 1/2 day work week and work a half day on Saturdays), and he said okay then we will be together tomorrow. He comes up to the school to help us out whenever we are up there even if it is on the weekend or at night when he doesn't need to be there. He is also probably one of the funniest people ever. He has such a great sense of humor and has be falling over laughing regularly. He also goes out of his way to do what he can for us. I remember one day last week down the hill from the school there was a group of women sitting outside the town gov't building and I asked them what they were doing, because they had been there for hours. He told me that it was a women's meeting, and then he took us down to meet all of them and see what they were discussing. They were actually discussing a Community Bank, which I though was very neat and a very good idea. It is a lot like microfinance, but without outside help. They were in the process of setting up a community bank when village member can put their savings, and by pooling all their money together be able to provide small loans to other members of Olarash. It's cool to see an initiative like that being done by a community on its own, and no relying on outsiders.
There is so much more, but I'm lacking in time. I will write more soon.
Four of the six existing classrooms are mudded, painted, and have new cement floors. The other two will be done soon. Maiyan and I have drawn all of the teacher aides on the wall and will paint them next week. It took us 3 whole days to draw out everything on the walls. I tell you drawing 5 by 4 ft freehand map of East Africa is not an easy task. After doing that and 2 maps of Tanzania, and a map of the Monduli area, I decided to go and buy world maps for Standard 6 and 7 classrooms rather than trying to draw them. Its been really neat, because I am learning all of my science and math in Kiswahili. My favorite is that I can now explain the carbon cycle in swahili. The rooms are a dark blue on the bottom half and a cream on top, with an orangy-red color bordering the chalkboards and windows. We aren't nearly done, but they are already in a thousand times better condition and bright and cheerful. We have all of next week to get the teacher aides painted, then 5 days of teacher workshops, then the school resumes classes. I feel like we just got here are we are already almost done with the construction side of the project.
The painter, Nasi, is probably one of the sweetest people I've met. She speaks almost no English, and my swahili is still a bit sketchy, so it has been an adventure in itself communicating with each other. I told her that we were going to help each other with the other language. So she shows me something or points to something and tells me how to say it in Swahili and then I tell her in English. She has already learned so much English and she picks up on it a lot faster than I can pick up Swahili. It is a lot of fun though, and we have out own rhythm going on.
The construction of the classroom will be done next week. It was projected to take 6 weeks, but it will be done in 4. It is the first construction project I have ever seen anywhere in the world that has finished on time, let alone early. It will also save us some money, because we won't have to pay salaries and lunches for the 6 people in the construction staff for an additional 2 weeks. The reason it has gone so fast is because of the dedication of the workers and the community. There is always a lot of people there to help out whenever it is needed. They work harder than anyone I have ever seen. Jan says that if we weren't there working along side them everyday that it would take at least twice as long. The roof is going up tomorrow and then we will finish cementing the walls and painting next week.
The building process is insane. It is all done with hand tools. For example building the a-frames for the roof is all cut and nailed by hand. This is incredible to me, because they have to be exactly even, otherwise the integrity of the entire roof is shot. They measure and cut all the angles by hand, and the use 6in nails and hammer them in by hand. I've also seen when one of our shovel broken, Masai from Olarash bust out a hand made shovel. The take a piece of wood and shave it down, then nail in a shovel head. They always have a way to fix every problem with ease. I'm learning so much about building, and sometimes I just sit and watch them work for a while, because the methods they use are so intriguing.
Yesterday we went to town and did a bunch of shopping for the project. We got 16 bundles of colored string so the we can make big Xs across the ceiling and then use clothes pins to hang up pictures and students work. It is an easy way to display what the kids have done and brighten up the classroom. We also got some cleaning supplies, which is something I didn't really think about before I was here. But I think it is a good thing to give the school, so that they can keep the classroom and bathrooms clean and help with teaching better hygiene. We got a bunch of other school supplies and things like that, as well.
It is such a pleasure to work with all of the teachers and the headmaster Mr. Kadeghe. They are all so nice, and happy that we are at the school. We haven't been at the school for the last 2 days, because we were in Arusha taking care of other things. Anyway, on our way back up tonight I got a call from Mr. Kadeghe asking if we were going to be at the school tomorrow. I told him that we would be there in the morning (In TZ they have a 5 1/2 day work week and work a half day on Saturdays), and he said okay then we will be together tomorrow. He comes up to the school to help us out whenever we are up there even if it is on the weekend or at night when he doesn't need to be there. He is also probably one of the funniest people ever. He has such a great sense of humor and has be falling over laughing regularly. He also goes out of his way to do what he can for us. I remember one day last week down the hill from the school there was a group of women sitting outside the town gov't building and I asked them what they were doing, because they had been there for hours. He told me that it was a women's meeting, and then he took us down to meet all of them and see what they were discussing. They were actually discussing a Community Bank, which I though was very neat and a very good idea. It is a lot like microfinance, but without outside help. They were in the process of setting up a community bank when village member can put their savings, and by pooling all their money together be able to provide small loans to other members of Olarash. It's cool to see an initiative like that being done by a community on its own, and no relying on outsiders.
There is so much more, but I'm lacking in time. I will write more soon.