Days at the school

For two weeks, we went to the school nearly every day to work on the classroom. The building design and the materials were very simple: brick walls about a meter high, plastered with cement, and topped with a wooden lattice to let in light and air. The floor was also made of cement.

We spent most of our time hauling buckets of rocks, sand, water, and cement from the staging area to the classroom, since there was not even a wheelbarrow to help with this task. The only power tool I ever noticed was a circular saw. Cement was mixed with a shovel, on the packed dirt of the school courtyard. There were never enough buckets or hammers or other tools for all the volunteers, so we worked in shifts. That suited us fine since the work was hard and the weather was very hot. While one group of volunteers dug holes for the foundation or laid bricks, the others could spend time resting or playing with the children.

I didn't work on this wall, but mine didn't look much prettier.
Luckily, this will all be covered by cement plaster.

Carlos has been working hard!

Yenny, Mani, and Kevin take a break.

The school had virtually no playground equipment--only a single ball in a school of 193 pupils. But the children's favorite game required only a string. Two children would hold the string parallel to the ground, as if in a limbo contest. The object was exactly the opposite of the limbo, however; lines of children tried to jump over the string as it was raised progressively higher. When it became too high to jump over, the children would switch to cartwheels. There seemed to be no penalty for touching the string, as long as the contestant's feet went over the string and came down on the other side. We saw this game played many times a day.

A girl cartwheels over a string held by two classmates.

We had brought small gifts for the children, which were received with great excitement. Kids swarmed around me when I handed out Jolly Ranchers. The Canadian group had brought stickers, which the children stuck proudly on their clothes or foreheads. For people who have so little, even the smallest gifts were an excitement.

The Jolly Ranchers were a hit.

The children never ceased to be fascinated with us, and I never got tired of their smiling faces. One day we taught them to play the hokey pokey. Another day they had fun taking selfies with my phone. Every day they gave high-fives and hugs. I'm glad to be able to leave them with a new classroom, as a thank you for their gracious welcome.

The reason we're here