Siriwo Primary School

This was Lucy's (another volunteer) project. Lucy discovered a primary school well off the beaten track that had never gained any assistance from volunteers. She visited the school and immediately fell in love with it. The school was in desperate need of some help and Lucy put up her hand. The plan was to concrete the floor of a classroom and repaint all the blackboards. Next was quotes and prices, the hiring of 3 skilled workman and 2 unskilled labourers. Done deal. Lets get this party started! The classroom was a mess. Full of dirt that needed to be dug out. There were sections of dirt that were at least a foot higher than the rest of the room, then holes and rocks the size of a giant green turtles. I am not sure how the students chairs held up in this room, but I am guessing not too well. First step was to dig it all out, spread the dirt outside and then prepare for concreting. Now one thing to tell you about work in Kenya is it never how you planned. This is a 3 day project, with 5 workers hired to help. The head workman who ran the show turned up whenever he wanted. Sometimes not till midday. In fact on the last day he didn't even show up at all. Also what started off as 5 workers ended up in about 13. News quickly spread that a white girl had employed workers so off they trotted, some 3 hours to get to the school to help out. And yes they expected to get payed. Cant' blame them but it was havoc. Now we weren't sitting around catching a few rays of sunshine either. We were in amongst it, working hard, digging holes with a pick, hoe and shovel. Initially we didn't have any tools, so the school children ran home to their farms and gathered some for us. 18th century tools mind you. I thought I was digging out the classroom with some historical artifact. Anyway, we dug the room out to the depth required and created a new path to the toilets with the dirt. The next day the ladies cleaned and successfully painted around 10 blackboards. Their blackboards are just giant black squares painted on the wall. The girls did a great job and the boards looked a million dollars. Well maybe not a million dollars but they definitely looked much better than they were. Again around 10 or so workers rocked up ready for work. Now concreting in Kenya is slightly different too. Rocks are spread out over the ground. Sand covered the rock. Concrete dust covered the sand. Add a little water, mix like crazy with a shovel and off you go. Wheelbarrows full into the classroom, now we are making progress. Some other workers were in the classroom leveling with a piece of wood. Nice and flat. Once finished it was onto the next day for the final layer. The last thing to do was a layer of just sand and concrete (they call this plastering) and job finished. Lucy repainted the school sign and it was all done. Good job team!!