Temporary Beauty

A recurring difficulty for school director Vitalis is finding the rent every month. A few months ago the children once again arrived at school (the blue painted one seen in earlier posts) to find the door padlocked by the landlord who demanded money. The result? They managed to pay him off then found another building, which, while unsuitable, gave them a temporary place to call home and continue lessons.

Unfortunately, a major problem with this mud building is the infestation of termites, seen in the picture below, which eat their way through everything – the floor, desks, what little equipment they have.

While we were planning the build of the David Cox designed brick building, it dawned on everyone that we quickly needed to move the children away from the termites and into some sort of structure on the beautiful, newly purchased land. It is quite common for locals to plant or graze on unused land, so it seemed important to build something, however temporary, to show the school’s future plans, and give the school a permanent home.

Everybody concerned came up with a compromise to build 4 timber framed, tin clad classrooms, some shelters from the sun and rain, and 3 latrines. Just need to dig some holes in the ground and find some trees.