Over the
last few days we have accomplished quite a bit.
After finding out that the road to Washo was not fit for massive
Ethiopian dump trucks, we were forced to begin work in Azedebo. Washo is still very much in the works, it
will just take a few more weeks of human power to effectively adjust the
road. Since we arrived in AzeDebo on
Saturday we were able to finalize the land agreements and find living
arrangements for myself and my support staff… and that was before todays huge
accomplishments.
Today,
Temesgin Ijigu and I spent our morning conducting critical meetings with community
leaders, local government/school officials and village elders. The meetings went very well, all those
involved were very happy with the scope of the initial project, and were happy
to hear that ER plans on using the school as a platform for many future programs
in the area. The village elders were
especially happy to her that ER will be reaching out to include the village
elders and community leaders to assist in guiding the administration and
sustainment of the AzeDebo school. The meeting concluded with many of the
participants joining Ejigu, Temesgin and I in talking through ER’s expectations
for all those in the community that wished to become a ER temporary
worker. The community was happy to hear
that nearly all of the 180 individuals that showed for the meeting would have
the chance to work with ER for at least a week, while the best workers will be
asked to join an “all-star” work force to streamline the final 8 weeks of the
build.
During
our meetings, four members of the schools security and farming staff (they have
an impressive amount of farming on the property) were asked to begin clearing the
KG/library land of corn stalks, and bramble.
By the time we finished our meetings the work was almost complete. We spent a good hour cutting and shaping
stakes and then the three of us were able to start the mapping the school
layout. Using a variety of colors of
neon plastic string, hammer, and a 50 meter measuring tape, Ejigu , Temesgin and I carefully measured out schools
walled perimeter, each of the schools buildings and its respective
classrooms. As many as a hundred
students and adults watched in mostly confusion, as we measured and measured
again, to make sure that each class was no more than a couple centimeters off
square at most. The final product really
gave the onlookers a useful representation of the buildings to come. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get on a roof
or into a tree to take a photo.
Now that
the perimeter site lines are in place, digging begins tomorrow at 8 am. 20 people, 12 men and 8 woman will work together
to make a sizeable dent in the nearly 200 post holes. Each of which will be dug to at least 80
centimeter (depending on the use of the submerged material). We are thinking all that digging will be done
by the weekend. The schools perimeter
wall should start going up as early as Monday.
Not bad for a first week in the town.
The
following photos provide some images of today’s activities. And if anyone is wondering why the blog is so
inundated with panoramic shots is because they load in about 12 minutes, while
the others take more than twice as long… and their awesome. But we all already knew that.
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