Project Awali

Day 1: Volunteers eager to have their children attend kindergarten this fall clear the land in front of the primary school.

It's the dry season and it is so dusty that it's not necessary or possible to wear sunscreen; the dust settles into a fine, sun-proof layer on your skin. A layer that turns into cement when mixed with sunscreen.

The project had so much help from so many different people. The John D. Durante Foundation and Mary Ryan Foundation helped with funding. Filippo the Italian architect designed the kindergarten. Sylvia, another Italian, came to the village to help drawn the plan on the Ujindile soil. Dowdi Nyarusi, "the amazing", came from Makambako to be the head builder (he finished in 6 weeks, unheard of!). Though we hired 5 official carpenters to help with construction, every day another dozen people showed up to volunteer their time. The village raised 30% of the finances, and donated almost all the raw material available in the village.

Building in Africa is an amazing process. Everything is done by hand using the simplest tools.

Digging out the foundation. The earth in the dry season is hard as rocks, but with a little Rosa Muhundo and the Dixie Chicks playing in the back round, the day flew by.

That's the same earth that we used to make the bricks. A little clay soil, a little water, shove it in a wood mold, run out of the mud and plop it on the ground to dry in the sun. People did this all day long in a big muddy pit, usually on the jog. We used more than 20,000 hand made bricks.

Perfect circle.

Next step: 1st layer of the foundation: big ol' Ujindile rocks.

Street cred.

For the first month of building school was on break. Here the students are back at school, checking out the progress of the awali.

Students back in school meant more hands to help. We used the storage rooms in the courtyard at my house to keep the cement. One morning as I hung my freshly cleaned chupies up to dry the door flung open and the entire 7th grade came in to carry cement. There I was hanging up a pair of polka dot bikinis. I think they blushed more than I did.

Awali was built on man power and team work.

Christian worked on the tip top, chiseling the frame so that the pieces of tin roofing would fit in perfectly. The men spent two weeks working on the roof in the height of the windy season, with no safety harnesses. Luckily the only injury sustained during building was when I got sawdust in my eye. After that they didn't let me near the building.

Me "How is it going up there?
Christian: "Fantastic."

He's a rock star.

This is the future sight of the classroom and blackboard. Imagine 50 smiling faces learning their "ahhh, behhhh, cehhhh's".

A 360 degree view...

...means light all day long.

When we did the drawing we had to take into account the wind which tends to bring in a nice layer of dust every day of the windy season. If the door was in the wrong place the kids would wind up cleaning all day instead of learning 1+1=mmmmbbbbiiiillliiiii.

There's a beautiful wrap around, rain-proof terrace...

...so that the kids can play outside all year long. Even during the rainy season which lasted from Dec-May this year.

That's the teacher's office.

And the other window is the stoo, where the corn goes to dry.

Lovin' the roman columns. You can tell an Italian worked on the project.

With one week left at site everything was on track.

Just some plastering, painting, and windows to put.

I left my site August 5th. Awali was lookin good.

On August 12th, my date of official Completion of Service, I received a call from Pasta saying the building was completely finished, windows in, painted, blackboard up, and little tiny chairs ready for little tiny students. I hope to return sometime this fall to see the classroom in action and hear those magical words "good morning teecha"...I may spend a few months teaching kindergarten.