As we told you, people had been coming to the school for years, making promises that were never fulfilled. Well, sometime in the last 3 weeks, someone came through! There, as we drove up, sat a brand new portable classroom! Praise God!
The whole school yard was busy with workers working on landscaping and there was a huge slab of finished concrete for the kids to play on. The school is still in need of more classroom space, but the company that built the new one has actually promised two more. This is great news, even though it threw us a bit of a curve ball. We quickly started looking at the many urgent needs at this school, and talking to the headmaster about which were the most pressing. One thing he said was a real problem for them, is that there is no drainage at the entrance of the school. Now that they are coming in to their rainy season, kids will be wading through puddles or walking across planks as they come in. This is a problem which can be fixed very easily. Also as we told you, they have no where to eat or get out of the rain. Anton (our builder) said an overhang or awning type roof could easily be built onto the side of the building next to the little portable building where they get their meals. Right now we are waiting to hear an estimate on what those 2 projects would costs, but we expect them to be considerably less than the building.
On the other hand there are some very basic things these kids need like clothes, shoes, and food. So we are looking into many options and trying to discern what God is saying in a country so full of needs that it makes your head spin.
One thing we're learning about Africa is that communication is very difficult at times. We are having to adapt to the culture here, and be versatile enough to change plans in midstream. It's not like what we are use to where you decide to do something and you go do it. There are to many variables that you must deal with on a daily basis.
Thanks for supporting us in this endeavor. The poverty here is unimaginable for most of us Americans and there are endless good works we could do. But we really want to do just what God gives us to do so that we don't get discouraged or over-whelmed. We will be in touch soon!
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