New Building Construction - 4

Last week most of the slab was poured. Unfortunately the workers ran out of cement on Saturday and weren't able to finish it. More bags of cement should be arriving today. The two pictures below show how the site looked this morning.

Here's a video that shows how the slab was poured, spread out and tapped down.

A few stills of the work:

New School Building Construction - 3

Last week the workers poured a ring beam around the base of the new building. They also continued to fill in the foundations and pack down the fill in preparation for pouring the floor slab this week.

Tuesday: ring beam partially framed and poured

Filling in the foundation involved countless wheelbarrow loads of gravel and dirt.

Once the fill had been levelled and packed down, water was poured on it to help it settle and be as firm as possible.

Worker transporting 20-litre jerrycans of water from the handpump at Weer Bei radio (next door to the school property)

By Saturday afternoon, the ringbeam was finished and the foundations were almost entirely filled in.

Saturday afternoon: view from the northwest corner of the building

Saturday afternoon: view from the southwest corner

Monday Prayer

At Cush Christian School, we've been taking time on Monday mornings before classes start to pray for the construction of the new building. This is the only time the children are allowed to come right up close to the actual building site.

Here are some of the things we've been praying for:
- safety and stamina for the workers
- that the contractor would oversee the work well
- that the workers would work hard and do good work
- that the supplies necessary would be available when they are needed
- that the building would be finished by the start of the next school year (early February)

Please join us in prayer!

New School Building Construction - 2

This week's work involved the brickwork for the building's foundations, which was pretty much completed.

Monday 9 November, view from southwest corner

Friday 13 November, view from southwest corner

Saturday 14 November, view from northwest corner

Bare Feet

Most of the kids in my class slip off their shoes (composed almost entirely of flip-flops) when they arrive in the morning and don't put them on again until they go home.




I had a good chuckle a few months ago when teaching the word "toes." My teacher's manual suggested having the students "take off their shoes and socks and count their toes."

The manual is written for an African context, but obviously a more developed, and a cooler, one!

Anyway, accessing their toes was much simpler for my students. :-)









Turquoise seems to be the most popular colour for girls' flip-flops these days.

Notice the chalk art on the legs and feet of one of my teenage girls. :-)

New School Building Construction - 1

Construction of the new Cush Christian School building began in earnest this past week. What an answer to prayer! We all look forward to seeing the work progress during the coming few months. Lord willing, the building will be ready for the start of the new school year in February.

View from the northwest corner of the new building looking towards the current building

View from the southeast corner of the new building towards the current building

Two weeks ago, workers dug the trenches for the foundations of the building. The new building will run parallel to the current one and be similar in size. However, the division of the space will be different. There will be four classrooms, a storage room and an office. And there will be a veranda running the whole length of the front (west side) of the building.

Last week, trucks began arriving bringing sand, gravel, rocks and bricks to the site. This was pretty exciting for our students (and quite a distraction at first) since they don't often see such large vehicles up close and in action, particularly dump trucks.

The kids also enjoy watching anything the workers are doing.



The school walls will be built of bricks and covered with a layer of cement.

On Thursday of this past week, workers lined the lower end of the foundation with crushed rocks (the terrain slopes down). What back-breaking, bone-jarring work! Fortunately it was a cloudy day.

On the right is the foundation for the veranda/roof supports, on the left that of the west wall of the building.

Friday was a very busy day of making concrete and pouring the bottom layer of the foundations. This included workers filling countless jerrycans of water at the hand pump near the radio station next door and transporting them by wheelbarrow to the site. Mixing the cement with sand and rocks is very tiring, so the workers spelled each other off.

I plan to post weekly updates on how the work is progressing, so stay tuned!