buying the house/school

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We have now put a sh1.7million deposit on a new building to run the school from, this is also the same building we are planning to do after school catch up classes from, weekend fun activities and kids church on a Sunday. Just sh3.8million left to get over a couple more withdrawals from the local bank; the building is then ours!
The whole team is super excited for the building and the plans that we have in store for the future. The current tenants of the house were already planning to move out by the 1st of November so hopefully the paper work will all go through smoothly. We will then have the prospect of knocking a few windows into the wall to get some more light in, put some secure doors in and then paint the inside to make it look amazing.
In the meeting we had we discussed how we were going to afford new tables and chairs etc. Moses asked a few companies and schools around and much to our surprise one of the local schools gave us 30, almost brand new, plastic garden chairs and a big white board/flip chart. The guy selling the building already waited 4 weeks for us to make the decision to buy the building, just to make sure we were happy, so people in the area are giving us support knowing that it is a project much needed in the slum.
The whole team has their part to play in getting us moving quick on the project before we go. Moses needed to get the building paper work sorted and price etc. Megs and I are left with trying to sort out a logo, look into a website and other advertisement, look into becoming an official charity, opening up an English bank account (dad if your reading this I will be asking you when you get back from holiday). Francis is sorting out with a few different organisations for us to come visit and see how other charities do social work, education and paper work etc. Francis is also sorting out training up our volunteer teachers in social work to be able to do back ground checks on the kids (and no it’s not looking at whether they have a criminal record or not although it does include that). It’s also formulating a plan for each child’s family, where they live, social behaviour, work ethic, what their shelter, care is like etc. The teachers are teaching and listening to Francis.
I am sat in front of the kids in our small office and they all look so cute (you think with language like that it might be Megan talking but no), they are so cute and tiny and happy to be, not only learning but enjoying school. We have 2 teachers for 15 kids, so we can really give them the attention they need to catch up, in the world of learning, with their friends at school. Their clothes are hilarious, there are 2 brothers who joined the school later and joined my group (when we were teaching) so I got to know their names but Megan struggled even though they wear the same clothes as they always wear. Although almost as though they know it confuses Meg they have changed their tops. There is another boy who is 12 who has just walked into school in a pink dressing gown with coloured dots all over it. The younger brothers of this 12 year old often wear his t shirts and the youngest brother is 4 so also looks very funny.
After our late night, candle lit meeting the other night, we walked through the main city centre, which we haven’t done since being here and it is really crazy. The shops are all still open, more street sellers come out with no place to walk in some places because of shoes or clothes or food covering the streets. The uncovered drains, with drops of up to 20 foot below, you now can’t see which makes walking on the paths very interesting.

This is our work life

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