My first trip to Adaklu Aziedukope Primary (part 2)

With the materials now available and the men of the village and some from neighbouring villages ready to start work we began by mapping out where exactly the school would be located.   With that decision out the way and class locations marked out, digging for the foundations begun.  Although when it came to the work we had to keep encouraging them to actually work and stop chatting away about life.   They seemed to have the attitude that ‘when it gets done it gets done so let’s not rush things’, therefore leaving the few dedicated individuals to do all the work until they were ready to chip in.  We had to stop the work and speak to them about the importance of teamwork and cooperation and the pace picked up dramatically! I insisted that I got involved even if it was just a little bit of digging….my feeble attempts were the joke of the hour as I was told that my efforts would rather break the spade and so I should just let the professionals get on with it! I tried not to take all the men in the village laughing at me personally instead going over to the Year 1 group and finding out all their names and ages.  This task was a lot more successful and taking pictures on the digital camera and showing them resulted in me being followed all over the compound for the rest of the day with 5 to 7 year old posing for pictures then insisting I show them so that they can laugh at each other! It was nice see then trying to teach each other how to use the camera and the picture above was taken by a student in Year 2.  Not at all bad for a first attempt right? It was lots of fun although quite tiring – it was confirmed by the second hour that I am not as young and agile as I used to be and cannot run around in that heat for hours on end like they could! To be fair they reaaly did put me to shame!  What it did do though  was make me realise then more how the simple things we take for granted like going to school and having a classroom – some will never have the chance of experiencing.

When leaving for the evening the villagers presented us with the 3C’s a cockerel, cassava and coconuts, for which we were very grateful.  The journey home was anything but smooth as the car we were travelling in broke down after halfway into the journey meaning we had to hail a taxi or trotro (local bus).  However at that time in the evening not many were going past ans when they were they were full! *sad face*  All the while our newly acquired cockerel managed to behave and didn’t even run when he was put down for 2 minutes.  A few hours and two taxis later we got home exhausted but feeling like we reached out main aim of the day which was to complete the foundations! Yay! The plan is to go back to the village later today but with our car already halfway there with an oil leakage we’ll have to wait and see if we can get another car at such short notice to do the journey.  Where there’s a will there’s a way.  It’s our desire to see these classrooms built and so we will do all we can to ensure this happens! *smiles*

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• My first trip to Adaklu Aziedukope Primary (part 1) April 7, 2010 at 4:18 pm

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