Sunday, January 01, 2012

Peru School Building

School Building Projects
While we were in Iquitos we needed to inspect the two schools we built in the jungle near there. The first school (Jack Wolff School) was built in 2004 and is located 9 kilometers outside of the city. The second school (Joseph Pulley School) was built in 2008 and is located 50 kilometers in the jungle. Visiting the schools is always a special day and the schools always have a warm welcome for us. The Jack Wolff School continues to grow and now has over 600 students. The teachers and parents are working together to keep the school running smoothly. We had a meeting with the directors to discuss some plans to improve the school. Last year we replaced the metal roof. Unfortunately during the roof construction the builder did not overlap the new metal panels the required amount. The roof has some leaking seams so more metal sections need to be added. We estimated it would cost about $1,500 in additional materials to reinstall more roof sections. The work needs to be done soon before the rainy season in February and March.
The Jack Wolff School also requested support for more computers. They want to have a room where more students can work and use the Internet. They have some computers we bought them three years ago. We are reviewing how much we can spend on three more computers. The school also wants to have a traveling Soccer Team for boys and Volleyball Team for girls that will compete against other villages. The coach says they have some good high school age players to recruit for their team. They requested $500 to buy 30 uniforms with their school name and colors for the teams. We are going to be able to help them get a team organized for the next school year, which begins in March.

The second school we built in 2008 was the Joseph Pulley School. It is much more remotely located, almost 35 miles from downtown Iquitos. The brick school is in the jungle three miles off the main road. Most of the children walk several kilometers on a network of trails through the trees to arrive at school. Currently there are about 25 kids who walk to school each day. They recently painted the school inside and out. The most pressing problem is to protect the school from the termites that live around the cement foundation. The termites are climbing into the wooden roof beams. The teachers are spraying for termites several times per week. The school is closed for vacation January and February so we hope the school is ready for classes again in March. Overall both schools are in good shape and doing a good job with the students.

End

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