English Resource Room

Great news!!!!  The Peace Corps grant that Irena and I wrote was approved; so we are now starting to put together the English Language Resource Room.  It has already begun.  On Monday when I went in, Irena and Maria were talking about what they wanted to do and Maria was thinking about what she wanted to paint on the walls.  Our goal this week is to clean out the room so that the maintenance staff could start painting.   When Irena asked one of the maintenance ladies if there were some boxes and trash bags we could use, she asked why; and when Irena told her about the project, she called all seven of the maintenance workers together and in less than an hour the room was cleared out.  They told Irena and Maria to go downstairs with the other teachers and have some coffee while they did the work; they would not let them help.  But Irena said that she and Maria snuck back in and helped move one thing each.

By the time I arrived ready to work and clean, they told me that it was already done!  

 The room is all cleaned out and ready to be painted.  When I got there I was trying to think about what we could do with the floors, because the titles are old, some are missing, and some were not attached anymore. 

So we decided to take them up.  Most of them came up really easy.  Now Irena is thinking of something cheap we can put down because we did not think about this part when we were making the budget for the grant.  Later that day, Maria and I were looking for Irena and one of the teachers said that they saw her going upstairs with a broom.  We found her sweeping up the floor for the second time!!  Maria and I just laughed, and said we are probably never going to get her out!  She is just so thrilled that the school is getting a resource room.   It's a nice thing to see.  Irena and Maria are very excited about this project and are dedicated to it; so I know it will be a sustainable asset to the school.

The next step is to paint the walls.  Irena and Maria want to paint them white and paint the bookcases brown.  They also have a creative idea to cover up the bottom windows.  The windows look out into the roof of the gym, but the top windows do bring in some light.  They want to add curtains above those windows.  Maria is thinking about painting a picture of a bookcase with books along the wall to the left of the bookcases.  She is going to write the names of famous books and authors. We are going to add a table and some chairs and put a computer and a printer there so the teachers will have a place to make things.  The same person who made my bookcase, in the kitchen, is going to make a cabinet, like a file cabinet. The teachers will now have a place to keep materials and not have to bring them back and forth from home like they have been doing.  This room will also be a library for the students to come and get English books and also a place for the teachers to make and keep materials. 

We have already received an email from Darren Books. They are a company in Connecticut that sends free books to schools and places where Peace Corps volunteers work. So our box of books will be arriving in about 2 weeks. We also got some money to go and buy new books.  It's still the beginning but it looks pretty good so far.  I will keep you posted on the progress!!!