In the Homestretch

It's now over a month since the work has begun. We have been busy with the comings and goings of many contractors and supplies. It has been non-stop change...what a difference 30 days can make! More than 1,000,000 CFA which is around $2,000 USD has been donated by North Farmington High School Students and it all has been spent. Thank you one and all, especially Amre Metwally for your leadership! We have patched cement, built sidewalks from the school to the outdoor toilets and to the main entryway. We have scraped, sanded, and painted the downstairs and upstairs hallways, including the stairwell. We have painted the 6th grade classroom and are moving onto the two 7th grade classrooms next week. We have replaced missing screws, tabletops, benches, and backs on student desks. We ordered 30 new desks. We have replaced the small blackboards in the classrooms and resurfaced the large ones. We had the honor of receiving a U.S. Navy Humanitarian Delegation who brought us 240 school sacks filled with new notebooks, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, rulers, and scissors. The U.S. Embassy lent us ladders for 3 weeks to do much of the painting, and the U.S. Ambassador took time out of her schedule to meet with the school principal and two teachers...thank you! A U.S. Teacher bought and sent us more than 50 copies of an young adult novel in English! We have been the gracious recipients of the generosity of the African American Employee Resource Group from Compuware Corporation in Detroit Michigan. They sent us beautiful world atlases, folders, classroom maps of the U.S.A. and the World, and enough pens to give one to each student and teacher. Between now and mid-June, we hope to finish the 7th grade classrooms, and buy a broom, dustpan, and wastebasket for each classroom. And if money remains, we'll buy individual locks for each classroom door. There will be much work left to do; so if you feel so compelled, it's never too late to help. Thank you for giving; together we are making the world a better place for so many beautiful youngsters.