Final workday for this trip

It's hard for us to believe, but our two-week team mission is nearing the end. We have been hard at work on so many construction projects at Gituamba and tomorrow is another day of water filter distribution.  Then it's off to Nairobi and the flights home.  But we made this a constructive final workday. 

The painting team finished painting anything that wasn't moving and some things that were! They went through more than 40 gallons of paint and did a great job of putting the finishing touches on the school. Windows, doors, playground tires, fences, gates and anything else ,teal got primed and painted with two finished coats. The school shines! 

A last minute painting project was done beautifully by Kailee, Laura and Oksana. They planned the design, sketched it on the school entry gates and painted it, all in one day, and it makes an awesome inviting entrance.  

The team working on the new classroom building did a great job and have it ready for the finishing touches. The only thing that didn't get done was one gable, since they worked till they ran out of materials. This building will be the most modern and spacious classrooms in the school. 

The playground area is coming along well, with the addition today of a painted tire mountain for access to two plastic slides brought from the states. The team did a great job moving and maneuvering painted truck tires into position and filling the tire mountain with gravel. With the other structures already completed and still planned, it will be the best playground in Kenya. 

The plumbing of th kitchen and dining hall is completed, with the addition today of five faucets in the kitchen for hand washing, food preparation and plate and utensil washing and rinsing. Bases and sinks were installed (and painted, of course!).  This is probably the most complete school kitchen and a model for Kenyan schools. 

The school day is over at 3:30 each day, but you'd never know it based on the number of students hanging around until we left. It's a testimony to how much of an influence the team has on them, and they on us. It's great to return here each year and build on relationships that have been established. After six years of working here, we feel like Gituamba has become a part of us and a second home. We look forward to returning next year.