It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been able to get out of the office and visit our work sites. I finally tore myself away from the tedium of office life to visit several sites. One site is just 5 minutes walk from my office. It’s a school rehabilitation project for a public grade school.

School Bulletin Board

Schools seem to have a universal theme…walking into the main building of any school, anywhere and you’ll find bulletin boards bursting with announcements, grades poems whatever. This school was no exception.

I met the school director who told me that the school educates nearly 1,000 students. The school was about the size of the “two” grade school I attended. Here they run the school in three shifts from 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It took only 10 minutes or so to tour the school. I mean I saw every classroom, desk, chalkboard chair etc.

Sunlight falls softly onto the broken desks in one of the newer classrooms.

Each classroom is long and narrow, measuring something like 9′ x 13′. The desks are made mainly from rebar with wooden slats for the seats, backs and armrests, if the desk is lucky enough to still have arms. The wood has long since lost whatever color might have been applied to it.

Classrooms in the main building are fitted with pieces of painted metal that act as blackboards.  The newer building that houses the principal’s office and four classrooms have chalk boards that are built into the walls. Desks line the walls of the classroom and in a few of the larger rooms they have squeezed in an extra row down the middle.

We have a team of men working to plaster and paint the interior of the school as well as to mend an outer wall. We’re also hiring some skilled laborers to repair the desks.

I went back to the school again to take some photos and the men have done tremendous work in just two days. I’m looking forward to posting some stunning “after” photos. Until then…here are some “before” shots!

Old paint flies as a worker smooths the school walls in preparation for a fresh coat of paint.

Biology Classroom

Broken desks and piled in the corner of the schoolyard waiting to be repaired.