As we arrived the kids came running down the hill to greet and help us. We arrived to a crowd of people…….everyone from the community, education and government officials, TV crews …..
There were speeches and presentations
And tamales
And cake
And dancing
And best of all, piñatas!
It was over a year ago that I first went to Vega Grande with OSCAR to see the makeshift school…..4 poles and a roof. Yes! Vega Grande needs a school! Give me a proposal. The materials would cost around 5000$ US and the foreman another 500$. The community would commit to all the labor, the local govt. would commit to supplying the land. Saul wrote up the proposal on behalf of the community and I said OKAY….Let’s build a school.
This is the day of the inauguration and we’re getting ready to pack up.
A 40 minute drive took us to the place where we had to go on foot through the fields and over abridge and up a hill.
First step was to ask to see some of their work. We read, they read, we saw Math and Science assignments.
Games are not something these kids have ever seen. We brought Candyland, and Jenga, and a Memory Game and Floor puzzles… broke them into groups and divided ourselves to supervise each station.
Lastly… a snack. It’s a lot of suitcase space to haul bags of Trail Mix but worthwhile to give these kids some nuts and raisins rather than local cookie snacks.
Really though… after the hill and bridge we get to the schools… old and new.
At the existing school…
I was greeted at the existing school with a group hug and a wonderful letter on behalf of the children.
Listening to the kids read the letter with OSCAR the districts Education minister.
One of the last steps is the floor… cement is mixed in a puddle outside and then hauled in, bucket by bucket. The entire school was build with “people labor”. The 1600 blocks and bags of cement and all the other materials hauled in by the community folk, and every step of construction done by hand.
I am sure I was very helpful! Mixing cement for the floor
This fellow was in pretty much all the photos from the start of the school construction… hauling, building, shovelling. Here he is grinning cause I gave him TWO packages of cookies.
