Teshie School Project - Volunteer Diary - Day 11

Day 11 - Friday 21 Aug. 2009
Despite sore, tired bodies there was huge enthusiasm to finish the full schedule of work today before following the Teshie tradition and walking out of the site arm in arm for the final time. Two buses, full of the usual high spirits left the hotel earlier than normal to allow for an extra hour of work on site.

Electrical Progress:
After a stressful day yesterday for the electrical team, power was restored to the suburb of Teshie by the time the crew arrived early this morning. The team quickly got to work to complete the electrical work in the Technical School and Canteen areas. Final fixing of electrical sockets and other minor work was carried out by the dedicated team by 5pm in the afternoon. Congratulations to everyone on an excellent job.

Painting Progress:
The large team of painters concentrated today on completing all the painting work in the Technical School. Working frantically amongst the busy electricians the team painted the final coats on walls and ceilings downstairs in the workshops and corridors. Mobile scaffolds allowed the painters to put the finishing touches to the high ceilings and walls with a little more ease than previous days. Similar to the electrical team a sense of great achievement was shared by all as they surveyed the final work in the school.

IT Progress:
The IT team held a one day Writer course with 30 pupils from the school today. Like previous courses the pupils were highly attentive and extremely willing to learn to the delight of the trainers. Small treats such as sweets were accepted with the usual excitement that we have seen over the last two week by the children. At the end of the day each student was presented with a certificate of achievement. During our time in Teshie it had become apparent that a projector would be a great advantage to the IT room. A collection by the volunteers earlier in the week saw a projector presented to the school before the team left Accra on Saturday evening.

General news:
After lunch a football match was held between the ESB volunteers and some of the school children. After a hard fought match on very rough ground the children outran the volunteers and won. A few complaints about running in steel toe capped boots was blamed for the loss!

Before we left the site on Friday evening the traditional handing over of clothes, boots and tools took place. The precious items were handed over and were accepted with great enthusiasm.

The moment finally came that we had all been dreading - the walk off site. Just before 6pm the full team gathered arm in arm to walk out the gates for the last time. It's very difficult to describe to others who have not worked on such a close team in Teshie but the walk is very emotional. The Teshie team have been a great group of people to work with and the hugs and tears outside the site allowed us all to show our appreciation. Well done to all for your outstanding contribution to the project.

A report by Sharyn McMenamin (ICT Group) and Michael O'Connor (ESBI).