Friday, September 7, 2012

Science Lab is DONE!

The construction of the science lab is officially complete! Thank you to everyone who donated and sent positive thoughts towards this project; without all of you, the lab would have never been possible!  We started construction once I received the money in June.  Since June, the mason that I hired has tirelessly put forth the effort to get the construction done before the beginning of the school year and before my departure.  It hasn’t been easy with rainy season being so relentless this year, but we got it done!

The beginning stages....getting the lab tables built.


Getting the septic system built for the drainage of the sinks.  


I spent my last few months as a Peace Corps volunteer traveling back and forth between Pagala, Tchamba, and Lome.  As an organizer for Camp UNITE this year, it’s been hard to stay put in Tchamba to make sure all the work was taking off well.  Luckily for me, I have so many great counterparts who stayed on top of it.  I came back to Tchamba any chance I got to buy more supplies to tie over the workers until I could come back again and buy some more.  After 3 months of hard work, the science lab was officially built!

Putting on the final touches

All done!!

With running water too

The storage room with fancy closets for the materials.

Some students painting a large world map on the side of the science lab

We inaugurated the lab on August 31.  I wanted to get away without a big ceremony, but my counterparts insisted that it had to happen.  So, together we called up all the important people in town and we held a 20 minute ceremony to cut the ribbon on the lab.  To my surprise, the Parent Teacher Association gave me a gift of traditional woven cloth, worn by the Tchambas (or would they be called Tchambains? I’ve never figured it out)
All the authorities

Putting the ribbon on

The Prefet cutting the ribbon.  I dont know what prefet would translate into English....the person who is in charge of a county? 
The whole group at the ceremony

Getting dressed by the Prefet and his wife who is also the president of the PTA.

Me and Charundine, the mason.

Everyone was so pleased and impressed with the lab!  Tchamba’s only high school is finally taking a step in the direction of becoming a well-equipped establishment.   Thank you again to everyone who donated! I took the names that appeared on the donor list that Peace Corps sent to me and had them written on a plaque and nailed to the wall.  The names on the donor list were everyone who didn’t want to remain anonymous; if you donated and don’t see your name on there, please know that Tchamba and I appreciate your donation very much!!