Let there be windows
Standard 2 (the Primary School class for children turning 7 years old) now possess four freshly-minted iron window grills. Carolyn, team artist in residence, has created a colour scheme for them (the red is undercoat), to run past the Primary Head Teacher and the painter tomorrow.
"That man is a builder, you say?" asked one of the construction team at 7.30am when Sue, Rafal and I went down to visit the site. "Yes!" "Does he have tools? A level, and trowels?" "Yes!" Rafal worked all morning with the team, and they are now firm friends. Tomorrow morning by 7am ten more windows are promised. We'd expected them at 2pm today, but the whole area has been affected by powercuts since morning. (Matrida and her friends baled us out for lunch, providing fire-cooked nsima with beans to replace our planned electric-boiled pasta.)The supplier of the windows will be working on them all through the night, so that project here can continue uninterrupted tomorrow
"All the techniques we're using, I remember from my childhood in Poland," Rafal reflected this evening. "We mixed cement by hand, and we used timber to make clean edges. It all seemed so familiar. I felt like a fish in water."
A great morning. What next?
Just after lunch it was all hands on deck to set out a representative selection of the tools, equipment and supplies we'd brought from the UK and Poland. Staff and students from every school-stage and section of the village assembled, and we tried our best to explain the love and care of so many supporters represented in the objects on display: necklaces and other treats for the "mothers", reusable nappies, feeding bottles, security torches and whistles, maths sets, rulers, football kits, pens and pencils, netball hoops, microscopes, test tubes, dropper bottles, a water distiller, a half-size human skeleton model, drawing compasses, supplies for "Protection for Education" (a scheme to ensure girls have reusable sanitary products so they don't miss days of school each month), wood planes, chisels, saws, drills, mallets, hammers, marking guages, fabric scissors, needles, seam rippers, dress-making french curves, bolsters, trowels, floats (a tool for rendering), an angle grinder and discs, toner cartridges, a laminator and pouches, usb sticks, mobile phones, laptops... (Not an exhaustive list - just written from memory.)
To everyone who in any way helped to provide these, and to fund the Primary School refurbishment works - from staff and students at Home of Hope - a huge Thank You.
A young man, Clement, is heading off to begin a university course tomorrow. Chisomo Chipeta (one of the core Home of Hope administration team) quickly took one of the mobile phones (donated by my workplace), one of the 12 laptops we brought (donated by Gillian's husband's workplace, and all of which will be for university students), and worked with Clement to set them up and to familiarise him with them. Tonight he's packing to leave Home of Hope, using one of the suitcases in which we brought equipment, and which we planned to leave behind for this very purpose. He goes out as yet another representation of the mission here: "Infancy to Independence". We wish him every success.
After the presentations we met with school and department leaders to discuss how to actually hand everything over. They called on others to help them sort and carry, and soon it was all in its proper place in departmental storerooms, ready for the start of term. Earlier, in a prayer of thanksgiving, Shinghai Chipeta (Rev Chipeta's grandson; Lucy's son) had asked for a spirit of gratitude expressed in care for the tools and equipment. This was a theme of the meeting, too. All showed a concern that things should be well used, and well looked after. Home of Hope accountant, Phillip, approached me to say, "I need the list of all of this. I am going to check that it's being used, and that it is being used well."
After a big day, no "team meeting" this evening, just a wonderful meal in the company of Matrida, Deliah and (another) Carolyn, who both prepared the food and joined us to enjoy it.
Clear skies tonight. Southern Cross. Milky Way. Stunning.
Alex
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