The last two weeks of the project were without rest for the volunteers!  With a strict deadline looming, windows frames still needed to be painted, touch-ups still needed to happen, final floors needed to be poured, and finishings still needed installing.  Working straight through the weekend, from dawn until dusk, we finally managed to finish the building on time for the August 17^th deadline. 

While our local workers were working away at the construction of the roof, volunteers started painting the inside of the building: three new classrooms and the laboratory.

Week 7 has seen all hands on deck and all eyes on the calendar. The official opening is slated for the 17th of August, and with that deadline in mind ROTH’s intrepid team of volunteers has been working overtime. However, although much work remains to be done, there is no cause for panic. The pieces are all falling into place one by one, and each passing day brings new achievements.

As would say our charming volunteer coordinator Claudel, "though they may follow each other, the weeks certainly do not resemble one another".  

The continued chilly mornings have made week 5’s labour intensive tasks a little easier to complete. The site is looking chaotic, but we like to think of it as the opposite of the calm before the storm - it’s the disarray that comes right before things really start to take their final form. We’re getting close!

This week, with cool mornings perfect for working conditions, volunteers were busy cutting ring beam and preparing for the roof. Most of the work currently being done on the site is very labour intensive, including lifting 60lb concrete blocks used to form the building walls and cutting ringbeam with a saw for the steel roof fixtures. Volunteers work beside local labourers in an effort to complete tasks in the most effiecient and effective way possible.

This week the building really started to take form. Monday was a big day for our volunteers. Thomas and Tim carried large rocks and laid them on the foundation in preparation for the concrete floor. As a result of this hard work, we were able to lay gravel the next day. On Tuesday, volunteers Tim and David, fixed the pipes for the plumbing in the laboratory. It was a long day for all involved, not leaving the site until 6:30PM. However, this gave us an opportunity to spend time with the girls at the school and participate in their evening downtime. We watched them dance and sing together, which was a beautiful and very unique experience for many of us.

The second week of work was fully loaded. First, we began with pouring the foundations. We got to work early on Monday morning and hit the ground running and were fortunate to have the help of local women and men. While some of the volunteers were busy preparing the concrete with water, cement, sand and aggregate, others were pouring the foundations with the help of a human chain. Volunteers assisted local women in transporting heavy buckets of water to feed into the concrete mixer.