Friday was the last day of Summer School 2010, so it was only right to say farewell with a little celebration.  This years summer school has been a great success thanks to all our teaching volunteers Jonathan Hooper, Joanna Thompson, Miranda Van Vuuren, Patrea Smith, Matthieu Lamalle, Jean-Guillaume Misteli, Chloe Quevatre and Tom Fox (and a few others who showed up to help out occasionally!).  It was hosted by Apostolic School in Mamfe, and was attended by students from 3 schools in the local area.  At its busiest time there were 150 students from stages 2-6.

         

        

Above: Bryony Cusack, Daire Moriarty, Jonathan Hooper, Ryan Beilby, Emmanuel Abaaja (Projects Abroad Deputy Director), Monique van den Bos, Rob Ververs, Ricky Ly and Miranda Van Vuuren enjoying the celebrations.

The day began with music and dancing, followed by a few speeches, including one by Projects Abroad country Director Tom Davis who came up from Accra for the occasion.  Volunteer Jonathan Hooper also said a few words of thanks on behalf of the volunteers. The speeches were followed by another break for some more music and dancing (any excuse!).  

 

Jonathan Hooper saying a few words on behalf of the volunteers

Prizes were awarded to two students in each class who had been selected by our volunteer teachers, one for excellent behaviour, and another for academic achievement.  After the presentation of the prizes each child who had attended was given a notebook and a pen so nobody went home empty handed.

            

          

Volunteers with their star pupils (left to right): Miranda Van Vuuren, Matthieu Lamalle, Jonathan Hooper and Joanna Thompson.

It was a great end to what has been a great month. 

 

By Anne Buglass

I'm sure that ex-volunteers Sam Wight, Quentin Ranson and Sam Hooper well remember the back-breaking work of digging the foundations for the new classroom in kokoom village.  Well it's great to see how quickly the building has come along, with the finishing touches being completed last week.  

Luckily it wasn't long before they were joined by a few more volunteers to help things move along quickly.  We had 16 volunteers at one period on the building site, which made progress very quick.

Left to right: Marc Abrams, Louis Larere, Madeline Ballard, Emma Grimwood, Philippine De Lalun, Grace Eliet, Tom Fox, Sam Wight, Jack Greenhalgh.

 

They even learnt some head-balancing skills, much to the amusement of the village children!

                  

Sam Wight and Peter Akselson showing off their balancing skills!

 

With so many hands on deck the structure was up in no time, and before long they were braving the lofty heights and wobbly scaffolding to finish the plastering.

 

Volunteers Tom Fox, Paul Kastner and Rachel Kupfer braving the scaffolding.

 

Then came the painting.  The transformation in just 2 months is amazing. Well done to all the volunteers who shed blood sweat and tears (or hopefully just the sweat) on building this new classroom, and finishing it in time for the new school term!

 

Left to right: Hester Lockley, Cece Nealon-Shapiro, Dani Moubayed, Rob Ellison, Jenny Apfelback. Right: Ricky Ly

 

I hope all the volunteers who took part in the building project over the past few month enjoy seeing how great it looks now finished.  Now on to the next one....watch this space for progress reports!

 

By Anne Buglass