Chalkboards

Remember when I mentioned the crazy storm that came through in December? In addition to knocking down lots of trees and flooding things, it also seriously messed up the roof of our primary school. Luckily school was out at the time and no one was hurt. When school started again in January, 8 of 17 classes were meeting in large army tents while they fixed the buildings.

I was glad they at least had somewhere to meet, however...

Two weeks into the term I talked with some teachers, and they all said, can you get us chalkboards?? These classes in tents have no chalkboards and it's really hard to teach without them.

Uh, yeah. 

It's hard to teach 30 to 40 kids WITH lots of resources, let alone without basic ones like chalkboards.

Trying to think quickly, I realized that writing any kind of grant would take too long. By the time money actually came in, the renovations would be completed, and the classes would have been without boards for months. So, I looked into trying to make some. I was going to experiment with making my own chalkboard paint, but when I posted my dilemma on facebook, a PCV in Jwaneng found a guy that would donate the store bought stuff to us.  Sweet! Thanks Christina!!  By the time we arranged this and got the paint from South Africa to Jwaneng to Gabs to my village, it was almost the end of February. I got the school to save the old doors and ceiling panels that weren't too water damaged, and painted some boards.

I made 6 boards, to the amusement of all the construction guys at work on the school. I realized about halfway through my endeavor that painting is pretty much a man's job in this country, so seeing a woman painting was an unusual site for both the students and the workmen.

By time I got the boards made, the classes had been in tents for 2 months, and several had moved back into classrooms. But since they renovated half the school, they decided to paint and fix up the rest of the buildings as well, so the boards definitely got a month or two of use. The teachers also like that they are portable, so they say they will keep using them. Win!

I took this picture to send a thank you card to our paint donor. Chalk boards make happy kids and VERY happy teachers :)