First Classroom Complete

This entry is a continuation of the previous one. Great news!!!! The second team from our partner, Developing World Connections, completed the new classroom that was once the old kitchen. Take a look at the below picture from the previous blog. Smoky and very non hygenic... The picture included is of the pre schoolers who are now using the new classroom classroom. Thanks again DWC and the team of volunteers for the funds and VERY hard work. CTC is so proud of you.

Second Team Arrives!!!!

Our partner, Developing World Connections, is a volunteer tourism company. We work with DWC by giving their teams access to Maai Mahiu and development projects. The newest team is made up of 9 students from the University of Toronto. Many of them are journalism majors. This team is staying the longest yet for CTC, 5 weeks. This team is staying in Maai Mahiu and have come with the goal of building. All building projects this year are focused on Ngeya Primary which is the government school in MM that is severely under funded. With 2000 students and an average of 75-100 students per class you can imagine the chaos. The first team, Bodwell High School, finished a new kitchen as you have seen from previous blogs. Now the next goal is to turn the old kitchen, first picture, into what it was originally meant for, a classroom. The team is on their 3rd day of work today, Wednesday. This post will have many updates as they are here for many weeks and working on 3 distinct projects.

First, they will complete this classroom with a new concrete floor, windows, doors and blackboards. From there they'll move to the adjacent classroom and put in windows, doors and fix parts of the existing floor. Finally, they move across the school compound to finish a 3rd classroom with a concrete floor, dirt currently, windows, doors etc. In the end, they will have made 3 classrooms in good working order.

To put in a floor in Maai Mahiu is hard labour to say the least. I feel sometimes it looks more like a chain gang. There are no machines or electricity. So all the large rocks have to be pounded down to make a flat floor. All 40 bags of concrete have to be manually mixed, carried and poured. Walls have to be concrete spackeled by hand. The first two days have been A LOT of work for the team but they have stepped up. Rocky is really proud. I have included a few pics of these days and will update as things get completed. The kids at Ngeya, who are in school right now, find the visitors truly mesmorizing. It's hard for the DWC group to stay focused sometimes as the kids are hard to resist. But DWC has done a fabulous job staying on course.

Thanks to DWC and this team, there will be 3 beautiful classrooms for the students at Ngeya Primary!!!!!

Kitchen at Ngeya Primary Update

I promised an update once the kitchen at Ngeya was complete. Happy to say it is!!!! I have included a few pics of the before and after. The first picture was of the old kitchen that is supposed to be a classroom. Second, is the final outside view. Third, is the inside of the completed kitchen. Last, is the kitchen mid work. This project at Ngeya Primary School was funded by Bodwell High School in Vancouver who also was our first team of 2009. The kitchen will now feed all 2000 students out of a clean, proper kitchen. As always CTC is looking for additional funds for fuel efficient stoves and will eventually need tables and the like, so if anyone is interested you know where to find me.

Thanks again Bodwell for working so hard. Rocky and Mwaniki keep using the work of your team as a benchmark for each team this summer. So you really impressed us and knowing Rocky and how hard he works, you impressed Mr. Work. Thank you again from CTC and Ngeya, we could not have done it without you.