I thought that this might be a good time to bring everyone up to date with where we are the school building project and how we spent the funds that we had received. We did well in some areas, but had to spend more in others, for example, the roof cost more in the end and was the most stressful assignment, but also the most satisfying as the rainy season is at hand. We never allocated any money for toilets when we did the original budget. Oops! Maybe we have lived too long in Madagascar where toilets are not exactly a priority.
You’ll be happy to know that the toilets were built just as the children returned to school after the holiday. There is no roof or doors yet, but they are functional. We realized right away that we would not be able to simply fix up the existing building, but we also had to make a start on some of the other projects which have their own budgets. We initially budgeted R100 000/5 700 E for the reparation of the existing building. We had to use some of it to make a start on one of the retaining walls at the back of the building as well as the support struts. And as I mentioned earlier, to build the toilets. In the end, we were unable to plaster any of the walls and two classrooms still have their mud floors. Two retaining walls will be needed before we move on to building the other classrooms. The one which we started on at the back of the existing building is a concern, because the bags with sand which Dries put down as a foundation until we can continue the wall, are already starting to perish. This means that when the serious rain starts, we hope that it won’t collapse. These retaining walls turn out to be our biggest challenge. The initial price of R30 000/1 700E still stands.We have not done anything about the fence or wall around the school. It is not the priority, but would be immensely helpful as people are still stealing anything around the school that they might find useful. We are unable to keep the children from the neighborhood from playing on the school ground and writing on doors and walls and just generally being a nuisance. We are trying our best to reach out to the community, but find that the people have not opened up and some are even complaining about us being there. Euphrasie told us that it was because they never thought that the building would be used again and that the surrounding people were slowly appropriating the space for themselves. The wall will cost R70 000/4000E.Dries built the little room where the water tank will eventually stand, but we are once again at an impasse with Jirama, the water and electricity supplier. We have paid half of the money and bought all the pipes necessary, just to be told that they did not have a water meter. I have a feeling that that is code language for a bribe, but that will not be forthcoming as we simply are not able to pay up. It is too deep to dig a well, so that is not an option. We are considering going solar to avoid dealing with them about the electricity, but that will require a whole new budget. We have no finances yet for the pre-school and the Grade 4 and 5 classrooms. We budgeted R125 000/7 100E and R150 000/8 500E respectively for these projects. We still have time though, but the pre-school needs to be completed by August next year. We have received just under R126 000/7 000E and spent it as I explained above. We also have to deal with exchange rates which fluctuate all the time. We are so thankful with what we had accomplished with God’s provision. Building anything here, is definitely not straight forward. Please pray with us for what we need to complete this project.
Before…..the back of the building Struts and start of retaining wall After…front of building, this is where the second retaining wall needs to come
