School

One week ago I arrived "home" after spending two weeks in Liberia. I've gone back to my normal day-to-day stuff. And even though my entire life is mnstry-based, it's hard to see the progress made in this type of setting. Short-term trips (esp. in non-sensitive areas) have easier-to-measure accomplishments. So today I want to commemorate what we accomplished in Liberia.

This is the school we helped...their old building. The small building, near the flag pol, is the kitchen where the children eat lunch.

There are 117 students, 57 of them are orphans. The rest come from extremely poor villages nearby. There are five teachers in the school. They've been working without pay for years to help these children receive education that very few in that area have available.

So we bought a piece of land down the road from the current orphanage property and school property.

We had foundations laid.

We bought two shipping containers...

...had them placed on the foundations. SO thankful for the Chinese company down the road who gave us the use of their crane for free (cranes are extremely hard to find, almost impossible to get permission for use if you do find them, and really expensive once permission is granted).

...put a roof on top to cover both containers...

...had a wall built between the containers, forming a large classroom in the middle. Each container was also divided into two rooms (4 rooms total, plus the large central room between the containers): 2 classrooms, 1 library, and a storage room/office.

We had the container cut out, windows & doors welded in place and secured with bars...

...peeled all the letters & numbers off the containers....

...painted...

And then we celebrated...

...from room to room...

Tomorrow (Monday) the school will begin having classes in the new building!