Yesterday we went to the Escuela Majagual, which is the public primary school in Cambita. We worked with local community leaders to come up with a few projects we could do to help improve the school and to talk about ideas for future projects. Hopefully, Groton can form a relationship with this school and send groups of students to work with it for years to come. One project we worked on yesterday was leveling the front yard of the school, creating rock walls, and bringing five dump truck loads of dirt up to the yard. This way the school can create a garden or plant trees in its front yard. That was by far the most time consuming project, and the little kids loved helping us, even though that involved carrying huge bags of dirt up a steep hill! We were leveling the yard until 7 pm. Another project was a water collection system for the school. Water is scarce here in Cambita, and the school needed a way to collect rainwater for washing the school, washing students’ clothes, cooking, and more. We installed a gutter system that led into a trench where we buried a pipe. That led to a water collection area, and now the school will have plenty of water for years to come. It was awesome to see a lot of the students’ parents come out to help us and to work with them on the projects. Lastly, we created a mural on the school’s wall with help from one of the teachers. We painted a Dora the Explorer and her pal Diego, a tree, numbers, flowers, and repainted the railing. It looked really cute at the end and definitely cheered up the school. Yesterday was the biggest work day by far and even though we were tired by the end, we all felt great about how much work we had finished in just one day!
I also had a chance to go with Ross to speak with Hilario, one of the student’s parents. Hilario is very involved in his child’s school, and brought us to look at a shuffle board game that he wants to install in the school. We met an American who had the game and told us how to order it and send it here to the school, so we will be ordering that with the rest of our fundraising. Also, we talked to Hilario about sending other groups of Groton students to work with the Escuela Majagual and where they would stay. We knew that we should work to establish a lasting relationship with the school in part because were so many students and parents helping us work on the school. I loved being able to be part of the planning process now that we can actually see what Groton students will be doing. Hopefully, this trip will be a program that lasts at Groton and that we can work with this school again!
Dylan: Today we did a marvelous work program in a local elementary school. We finished some walls that would prevent soil erosion on the slope in the school. With plastic tubes, we established a water system that would carry rain water to different parts of the school. In the afternoon came the most strenuous part of our work program—carrying four trucks of black earth up to the hills. To our surprise, kids from nearby were willing to help us; with their help, we finished our work around 7 p.m. – then it was time to head home for dinner and rest.
Emmett: Saturday was the hardest day on this trip so far. Our group put in nine hours of work at a local school and the results were amazing. We built walls on a rocky hillside to keep soil from eroding and then covered the whole hill with four truckloads of black dirt. We also laid pipes for a drainage system to carry rainwater from the roof to the cistern and painted a mural for the kindergarten class. This painting included flowers, a tree and a couple of children with a sky full of letters.
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