The Home Stretch...

Greetings once again everyone!

As of March 20th, all the "plastering" is finished (this is the concrete work on top of the block work that makes everything smooth and nice - there's no dry walling...), the wooden ceilings have been constructed, and all electrical work is laid and ready to be connected. I left Nakpanduri with my headmaster, headed for Tamale for one last shopping trip. We bought "burglar proof" mesh and screens for the windows, paint, and door hardware - spending the LAST of my PCPP money! While I had hoped the flooring would be done and the windows installed - Mr. Jatuat assured me that this was to be done within two days of my returning to Tamale (presumably...it's done by now). The next pictures I send will be of the COMPLETED dormitory, with ASSEMBLED bunkbeds and HAPPY students! The program on April 2nd should be very interesting. The Peace Corps Ghana Country Director, Bob Golledge, is making the long trek from Accra to attend - and I'm giving a speech...partially in the local language! I'll try to get a picture of the astounded faces as I speak...

I'm astounded by your generosity and support. Thanks for making my last few months such a success!

Carl

"UNICEF Blue" nets smell funny...

Hey everybody -

Here are two of the Tamale Sub-Office guards modeling the NABSS girls' dormitory bunk beds complete with treated blue UNICEF bed nets! (The mattresses are not included sadly...) The bed nets DO smell a little funny, but that's because they're fancy and treated with insecticide. Supposedly, the net is designed with bigger holes than conventional nets to let more air flow, but the mosquitos still can't pass through them - AND the chemical is supposed to be effective for 5 years! As a last bonus, the Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service gave me the bargain price of 1.00 Ghana cedi per net - even less than their usual subsidized selling price of 2.00 Ghana cedis - so I went ahead and bought 100 nets! Little by little my to-do list is shrinking...

Carl

One month to go...

We're a little bit behind schedule all of a sudden, but after my last visit, I'm 100% confident we'll be done by the end of March. Why am I so sure? The headmaster told me that one reason the roofing was delayed was that the workers were engaged in other projects in town and he had a hard time sometimes getting them to focus on our project. My solution: the same thing that generally works on me - food. I gave the headmaster enough money to feed all the workers extra well everyday from now until the end of the month and threw in a decent monetary bonus if we can make the deadline(up until now the unskilled labor has been either totally voluntary - school staff members - or the very low paid help of the skilled mason and carpenter. I was able to do this because we're anticipating coming out a little bit UNDER budget - even after adding the electrical work on the dorm!) The mason and carpenter assured me that they would stay with the dormitory project until it's totally finished. I also scheduled another quick trip in two weeks. I've asked them to have everything done at that point besides the painting. This thing's gonna get done - and I'll have the pictures to prove it!!!

Carl

PS - Check out that ginormous cell phone tower with the mud hut in the foreground!